Humane Studies
by Itallia
Summary: That wasn’t POSSIBLE. You don’t just throw a knife and have it go straight through a metal gun from that distance. The accuracy and power that would take…And these were just KIDS. What in the world was going on? Naruto in our world, Noncrack. ABANDONED
1. Not in Kansas Anymore

Disclaimer: Don't own Naruto, but this fanfic and the stories within it are mine.

Summary: We've all seen the stories where someone is transported to the Naruto world, so what if things are switched. How is our world going to handle Naruto? Non-crack

Note: This is set pre-Sasuke betrayal, post-Godaime. It's about the time that Sasuke is released from the hospital, but before Sound gets him.

--

Humane Studies

Prologue: Not in Kansas Anymore

7:22 am, Day 0, Fire country, forest surrounding Konoha

The battle had been decided the moment it started. Akatsuki, instead of laying low after their last attempt to capture Naruto, had jumped right back in at the first chance. Naruto had been out on a mandatory capability check with several other teams. In these Hokage-delegated check-ups, four teams would be under the jurisdiction of one jounin supervisor and go into the forest to assigned testing areas. There, they were required to prove that they were not getting rusty on rudimentary skills such as henge and trapping. This check up was reserved for genin, but the newly dubbed chunin, Shikamaru, was dragged along with his team. Kakashi had surprisingly decided to take the job since none of the other jounin teachers were available (read: they had taken out-of-town missions as soon as they heard about the testing date in a meeting, which Kakashi missed because of his chronic tardiness) and was currently watching over his own team along with Team 8, Team 10, and Team Gai.

The new Godaime was actually using a ploy suggested by Jiraiya to test a theory she had mulled over on the trip back to the village. She had specifically staged the whole capability check up so that those four teams would be together under one jounin for the Genin Evaluation, whom she would then give her orders to. His or her observations would confirm or deny her hypothesis. She had even requested Team Gaara from the Sand to join them to further her analysis. Unfortunately, she had not gotten word from them before she had to send the teams off with Kakashi.

It was a bright early morning the second day into the testing when Akatsuki had attacked. They had been waiting for the target to be out of the sannins' protection, and the chance had arisen quickly and beautifully. There were four members this time—Itachi and Kisame again, along with a large cloaked man who used puppets and a blond man with sweeping hair (Ino glared jealously) who used exploding clay. The Konoha shinobi were surrounded in the shinobi version of "the blink of an eye." Numerous figures were blocking all exits. Neji had quickly informed the group that the surrounding figures were puppets with exploding clay in them, ready to detonate at any moment. No one would survive that kind of explosion, no one except, maybe…

"Naruto!" Kakashi heard Sakura shout as Itachi appeared in front of the spiky-haired blonde, looking as tall and imposing as ever with his red Sharingan easily spotted in his pale face. He would have to do it, Kakashi decided. There was no other way. Right before Itachi made a move at the Kyuubi container, his eyes locked onto Kakashi's. The Copy nin had removed his forehead protector to expose his own Sharingan. Itachi's eyes widened minimally over the rim of his collar as he realized the Kakashi's plans, but it was too late.

Before Naruto had a chance to panic, before Sasuke had a chance to lunge at his brother, before the clay could explode, there was a blinding whirlwind of color and sound all mixed into a single glorious experience, and then….

The Konoha shinobi were alone, in the same positions and perfectly intact, except for Kakashi, who quickly collapsed to the ground. While Sakura and Naruto were checking his health, Sasuke was looking around wildly for his brother, but everyone else…well, let's just say they were _not_ in the same grass-filled clearing they had occupied just a moment ago.

Each head turned in silent awe as they stared around them. Even Lee seemed at a loss of what to say.

The trees and sounds of the forest were gone, replaced instead by tall blocks set in rows on either side of them, taller than the Hokage Tower, that threw huge shadows. On these blocks were small glass-like squares and rectangles, the morning sun glinting off the highest ones. Shikamaru was the first to realize that these monstrous things were _buildings_.

The Nara genius quickly turned his gaze below his feet, staring at the black, hard ground they stood on. He tapped it experimentally with his toe and frowned. What could possibly be the purpose of…?

A sudden screeching and beeping sound had all heads turning to a beast of a contraption speeding down the black path towards them. Ino pointed at it and screamed "It's a monster!" while successfully hiding behind the bulk of her chip-loving teammate, who continued eating despite the situation.

In the meantime, Neji had activated his Byakugan and was scanning the "monster" to see what it was. His blank eyes quickly widened and then he shouted loud enough for everyone to hear, "There's someone in it! And…it's not _alive_."

Sasuke, having finally calmed down when he realized Itachi was no where to be found, frowned deeply at this assertion and activated his Sharingan, looking at the momentum of the moving bulk. "Everyone move!" he ordered. "That thing's not stopping."

It was simple work to dodge the incoming beast, Kakashi being carried by Naruto and Sakura, and most were prepared for a counter-attack before they landed, but what they weren't prepared for was for the monster to make a roaring sound before shooting off down the black pathway and zipping around a corner.

There was silence for several heartbeats as the genin (plus Shikamaru) watched the corner or glanced around nervously (Kiba was the only one to cover his nose as something noxious passed through the area); then Sasuke broke it by walking over to Naruto, Sakura, and Kakashi and crouching down next to the sprawled, drugged-looking jounin.

"Kakashi-sensei," Sasuke said loudly, and the jounin blearily opened his eyes. Sasuke's breath hitched as he saw the design within the red Sharingan eye before rage quickly consumed him. The two dots in his Sharingan dots began spinning wildly.

He grabbed his teacher by the vest and hauled him up a bit before angrily spitting out, "How? What did you do??"

Naruto began to protest, but Sasuke pinned him with a red-eyed glare. "We have to know what's going on," he said coldly before returning his attention to their teacher, leaving Naruto no choice but to simmer in reluctant agreement. Silently, several others were with the Uchiha. They needed answers right now.

Kakashi blinked his mismatched eyes up at his student before his face set in a solemn expression. "It worked?" he asked grimly.

Sasuke was glaring at him and managed to get through his clenched teeth, "How did you obtain the Mangekyou?"

Kakashi stared at him with what might have been termed an empty gaze (except it was too sharp to call it that) before slowly shaking his head and pulling his forehead protector back down over his Sharingan eye. He stared into Sasuke's tortured eyes seriously with his one eye before saying clearly, "Help me up and I can explain."

Once they had the jounin relatively comfortably situated, leaning against a tall gray stone post, and everyone was gathered around close enough to hear, he began his explanation.

"I used a technique that opened a portal to another dimension." The group of ninja stared blankly at their superior.

Well…that was it in a nutshell.

"Unfortunately," Kakashi continued gravely, "I have no idea where we ended up, and I'm about to suffer the effects of chakra exhaustion, so going back any time soon is out of the question. If I had used even a single technique before transporting us, I would be dead right now." If any of the genin were taking the situation lighter than they should have, they were quite serious now.

The jounin turned his gaze to Shikamaru. "You're in charge," he declared. And then, before they could properly accost him with questions, Kakashi conveniently passed out, his chin dropping onto his chest.

Shikamaru sighed. How troublesome… Chouji had stopped chomping on his chips and Ino was exchanging worried looks with Sakura. Naruto was glaring at a brooding Sasuke and Lee had silent tears running down his face—_how youthful of the man to save them all at the risk of his own life!_—while Neji and Tenten, at the outskirts of the group, were both keeping an eye on their surroundings for any more threats like the odd "monster" from before. Shino was also discretely watching for any more surprises while Hinata was looking at everyone with a worried expression and Kiba was growling obscenities under his breath. Akamaru whined his agreement from his hiding place in his partner's jacket.

"We need to move to a secure location," Shino suggested, his baritone snapping the group to attention. Shikamaru sighed again, mentally voicing a long stream of "troublesome"s, but nodded his agreement, his quick mind already producing a solution.

"Like Shino said, we're too out in the open here. Since there isn't any dirt to draw in here, listen up: here's the formation plan." Shikamaru's normally lazy voice now had a sharp edge to it. "Ino, Sakura, you two will help me carry Hatake-sensei in the middle of the formation. Neji and Tenten, you'll bring up the rear. Neji will watch our backs right behind Tenten while she keeps an eye on the group and stays on the alert to nail an enemy no matter what direction they come from. Team 8, I need you three at the front, Hinata in the middle and Kiba and Shino on the left and right. You three are our scouts. Hinata will keep an eye further up the path with her Byakugan while Kiba and Shino will watch for closer movement to the front left and right. Chouji, you'll be on the right behind Shino and will watch the right side. Lee will be behind Chouji and just in front of and to the right of Tenten; you'll watch the back right. Naruto, I want you behind Kiba watching the left side, and Sasuke will be behind Naruto to watch the back left. If anyone sights movement, they will alert me immediately with a specific verbal description. If a threat is perceived, the one who spots it is to take it out. Do _not_ break formation unless given my express order, and Do. Not. Stop."

Throughout his explanation, Shikamaru had glanced at each face as he gave an order. He quieted for a few seconds to let everyone sort that out in their heads before asking, "Any questions?" A couple looked like they might want to protest, but no one complained aloud.

"Which direction, Nara?" Neji asked, his voice only slightly miffed at having to obey the younger chunin.

"We're going to follow the direction of the 'monster' from earlier and see where it was going," the pony-tailed chunin answered. "Any more questions?" At the silence that greeted this, he said, "Alright, into formation!"

There was a quick scrambling as everyone found their proper place (and a couple shoves between Kiba and Naruto, though those were mostly friendly). There was also a little confusion over how they should carry Kakashi, but Shikamaru finally ended up carrying him piggy-back with Ino and Sakura behind them in case he slipped. Finally, everyone was situated correctly.

Shikamaru looked at the formation he'd made, frowned, then had Kiba switch places with Sasuke and Shino switch places with Lee. "You can have Akamaru look over your shoulder for you, Kiba; and Shino, your Kikai bugs can do the same," he explained his decision. (basic formation structure: http/ copyfox. deviantart. com/ art/ Naruto-Formation-HS-51470930)

After the switch was made, Shikamaru nodded. "We move slowly and silently," he said from the middle of the formation, Kakashi's head hanging over his shoulder. "This is unknown territory," he reminded them. After a few seconds of baited breath, the chunin ordered, "Move out."

They set off down the black street lined with strange towering buildings, wondering what would be around that corner.

--

7:50 am, Day 0, San Francisco, Police Headquarters

Miles away, a man in his mid-fifties sat at a desk doing paperwork. He removed his glasses and sighed as he leaned back in his seat and rubbed his sore eyes, squeezing the top of his nose while he was at it. It did little to alleviate his growing headache.

A knock on his door broke the silence of his office, and he called whoever it was to come in. His secretary opened the door.

"Chief Haun, there's a strange report from patrol car 7 in East Side answering a call about an unusual sighting. The car is requesting serious backup," his secretary informed him after closing the door behind her.

The Chief frowned as he glanced at the clock. 7:52 am. It was too damn early for this. "What was the call about?" he asked, his curiosity peaked. East was usually quiet this time of day—most people living in the apartments there were at work or school.

His secretary looked down at her clipboard, riffling through the papers before reading, "Apparently, there is a large group of children roaming the streets, and…well, the person said a car nearly hit them, but they jumped out of the way 'like cats,' and I quote. The caller seems to be under the impression that the children were also able to move a grown man between two of them and still jump an extraordinary distance."

The Chief quirked an eyebrow. "And what did the car report?"

More shuffling of papers. "…The car has reported that the children are successfully running away from them down 4th Street," she looked up at him slightly hesitantly, "…going 40 mph."

Silence greeted her declaration.

"…Is this payback for that pay docking?" the Chief muttered as he glanced out the window. Karma so sucked. The aging man sighed and replaced his glasses after one last eye-rub, then leaned forward and folded his hands on the desk, looking at his secretary. "Call seven units as backup—make sure one is a commanding unit—and cut them off on Elm Street with a standard double wall procedure. Tell unit 7 to direct the movements of the other units on the open radio connection. That will be all, Becky." His secretary quickly fled the room to fulfill her orders.

The Chief slowly looked down at the phone before picking it up and dialing it with slight trepidation. "Hello," he said formally when a secretary answered, his voice not giving away his nervous state, "this is Chief Haun with the San Francisco Police Department. We have a Special Situation."

--

7:39 am, Day 0, San Francisco, East Side streets

Several in the group of running shinobi were disappointed when they turned the corner to find another black pathway. There were a few monsters sitting immobile up against the white ground on the sides, but a quick report from Hinata at the front revealed that they were empty and unmoving. The formation continued moving. There were a few reports from Naruto and Chouji on the sides that some of the window curtains were moving and there were brief flashes of people, but there were no hostile movements towards them, so they kept going. Neji and Hinata were both able to confirm that most of the buildings were empty save for one or two people here and there, mostly elderly or in bed.

Several minutes had gone by since their first encounter with a moving monster, so the sound of a distant roaring was easy for the group to distinguish (though Akamaru heard it first and reported it to Kiba, who informed the other shinobi). It wasn't long before another monster was coming at them from behind. Neji told them there were two people in this one, but was cut off from whatever else he might have said when a loud, high squalling noise came from the beast and spinning blue and red lights lit up on top of it.

Neji shouted over the noise that the…_thing_ was gaining on them quickly, so they sped up their pace to stay in front of it. Shikamaru had them try several dodging maneuvers to escape it, including sharp turns down more black paths and, at one point, turning completely around and reversing direction by jumping over the monster. It managed to follow them no matter what they pulled, and Shikamaru silently cursed Lee for not being able to use chakra—if he could, they could easily scale a building and escape.

They had just come to a wider black pathway and Shikamaru was planning his next attempted escape when four more monsters zoomed around a corner and cut them off, lining up on the street. Shikamaru would have had the team leap over these new monsters, but the sides of the monsters opened and the people in them emerged seconds before several loud BANGs went off. All Shikamaru saw was the smoking spots on the ground in front of them, and he called a quick and sudden halt, gripping the blissfully snoozing Kakashi to keep him steady.

By combining Neji's input from behind and his own visual on the line of monsters in front of him, he inferred that there were now four monsters behind them in a similar line-up. The tall buildings cut them off on either side, and there were unknown weapons on the enemy's side. Well, at least the loud noises from the monsters had stopped (though the light show continued, much to his annoyance and slight curiosity). He took a silent, steadying breath as Hinata told him there were six people in front of them, one person in each monster on the outer sides of the line and two people in each monster in the middle. Neji was telling him the same thing from behind.

_12 enemies total_, he quickly calculated the possibilities, _unless you count the monsters_. They could deal with that.

"Circular formation, all!" Shikamaru shouted, and watched as the ovular shape they had been in before stretched into a circle. Neji turned and backed up between Tenten and Kiba. Sakura moved between Neji and Kiba. Ino moved into the space between Tenten and Shino, who was next to Chouji. Lee, who had never used weapons before, was between Chouji and Hinata, and was the only one of them not armed. Hinata was next to Sasuke, who was next to Naruto, and Naruto was next to Kiba to complete the circle. Shikamaru himself stayed in the middle to protect Kakashi, and because the middle was the optimal position for his shadow techniques to strike in any direction utilizing the shadows of the genin all around him. The circle was facing outward now, clutching kunai and/or shuriken, each in a position to hit one or more of the monsters. Then, to their surprise, the sides of the monsters swung outward and the people inside crouched behind them. The shinobi switched their attention to the human threat instead.

"Neji, estimate on chakra capacity," Shikamaru ordered. "Hinata, weapon count." He needed to know how quickly they could tire these people out. He was slightly relieved that he couldn't see the bulging veins of the Hyuuga cousins as they went to their tasks.

Surprisingly, it was Shino who answered his first order, in a voice that was only hesitant in its slow delivery. "They don't have chakra," Shino said, his tone the same flat matter-of-fact one he always used. Neji confirmed Shino's conclusion a moment later, sounding like he was suppressing shock.

If anyone else was thrown off by this, they didn't show it outwardly, as good ninja didn't. Lee was shaking slightly, but Shikamaru supposed it was just from the possibility of meeting someone like himself (if the almost inaudible squeal of "ooooh" was anything to go by. He could practically hear the "yosh!" that was usually attached).

"They don't have any kunai or shuriken," came the soft voice of Hinata, "but they are holding strange objects in their hands and have extra ones hidden on other parts of their bodies. There are a few small pocket knives in some of their boots."

Shikamaru frowned. "The smoke spots?" he asked, hoping someone else had seen where they had come from.

When no one answered for a few seconds, Hinata said, "Uncomfirmed. Possibly the objects in hand. The residue on the ground of the smoke spots is similar to materials in the objects." Her voice sounded even smaller when she was ashamed of her inability to give a confirmed answer.

So these people didn't have chakra, but did have some sort of weapons that could move faster than any of them (even a _Hyuuga_) could follow. Shikamaru glanced at Sasuke. "Did the Sharingan pick up anything?" he asked the last Uchiha.

The shinobi were watching the enemy, so no one noticed the dots of Sasuke's Sharingan begin spinning wildly. What they did notice, however, was when he twisted and threw a punch that smashed right into Naruto's cheekbone, effectively surprising Konoha's Most Surprising Ninja and knocking him into the middle of the circle, where Sasuke followed. The circle shifted outward and around to fill in the gap and give the two space, as ordered by Shikamaru.

"Bastard!" Naruto yelled as soon as he'd gotten over his shock and jumped to his feet. "What was that for??" he continued angrily as he planted his feet aggressively and held up a fist.

Sasuke's blank look gave nothing away as he started going through hand seals. His controlled voice floated into all their ears. "The only one of us who might have a chance of outrunning their weapons is Lee—without his weights. If we don't get out of here, we'll all be killed."

As soon as the words passed his lips, he was spitting fireballs in Naruto's direction, but the blond quickly dodged them. The outer circle shifted slightly to avoid the flames (though most hit the ground where Naruto had been standing) before moving back into position. Naruto was now standing by Chouji and Shino while Sasuke was still over by Kiba and Hinata. Shikamaru, with Kakashi, was by Lee, looking between the two boys with an annoyed expression that somehow still managed to look lazy.

"Sasuke-kun!" Sakura said, still standing between Kiba and Neji and now closer to her crush thanks to the shifting of the circle. She was in front of a building, so it didn't jeopardize the formation too much by turning to look at her teammate, which she did. "What are you doing??"

Sasuke's red eyes narrowed. "Kakashi can't use the Mangekyou Sharingan anymore," he answered her in a quiet hiss, not bothering to look at her. "There's only one way for it to manifest." His hands again flashed through seals, and then he braced his left wrist with his right hand and a chirping noise filled the air.

Naruto's eyes widened as he watched Kakashi's only original technique form around his best friend's hand. "Sasuke…you're…" He lowered his head so that he didn't have to look at the last Uchiha. "You're really trying to kill me, aren't you?" he murmured, just loud enough for the group to hear.

Sakura gaped stupidly. Hinata let out a quiet gasp, watching them with her Byakugan. Ino, Lee, Chouji, and Kiba, being part of the circle, were all looking surprised and confused at the sentence. The remaining shinobi either didn't react or were sporting grave expressions, now immediately on guard for attacks from inside or outside. The one thing they all had in common was a thought: What the hell was wrong with Uchiha?

--

8:17 am, Day 0, San Francisco, Elm Street

The police units that had responded to the odd call and surrounded the group of thirteen stared in confusion as they apparently started fighting amongst themselves. They were speaking unintelligible words to each other—the distance was too great to hear.

"Gshh—Gene, what are they doing? Over—Shh" the static-y voice of his commanding officer came over the radio com of unit 7. The middle-aged black man kneeling behind the open door of his car reached in to grab his com and clicked the button as he brought it to his mouth.

"I don't know," he answered, peering out the window of his open door, "but it looks like they've got some form of weapon besides those knives—you saw the lights? I suspect at least a flamethrower—and…from what I can see, a possible hostage," the man said, spotting a silver-haired man being supported by one boy in the middle of the circle. "He's unconscious, over," he confirmed, seeing the slackness of the man. He un-clicked the button and waited for a reply.

"Shh— Shannon just told me they've called in 'the professionals,' whatever that means—Shh," the com spat in a garbled mockery of the man's voice. "Shh—She says they'll be here as soon as possible. We're to try to detain the group. Use force if necessary, over—Shhk."

"Roger that, over and out," he answered, then clicked the com back into place and looked across the car at his own partner, who was watching the group with rapt, wide-eyed attention.

Damn rookies…

"Max!" Gene called in a toned down yell to get the other man's attention. Once his partner's smoky brown eyes were fixed on him he relayed their orders. "We are to approach with caution and attempt to restrain them. Use force if necessary." At Max's hesitant nod, they both rose slightly from their positions so that they were more visible to the group but still protected by their car doors.

"Alright, hands up in the air!" Gene called loudly, but surprisingly, the only ones of the group to look at him were the ones already facing him. The others stubbornly kept to their circular pattern, looking out in different directions, while the ones in the middle were fighting.

He peered through the gaps of people—the ones in the middle were around thirty feet away, but the circle had loosened and expanded when the fight in the middle broke out, so they were more like twenty feet away—and saw that the boy carrying the suspected-hostage had left the man lying on the ground and was standing with his feet planted and his hands together. He couldn't see what he was doing with his hands, but several feet from him was another black-haired boy in the same position, oddly enough. What were they doing?

He turned his attention to the blond boy who had been fighting with the second black-haired boy and saw that he was being restrained by two girls, one another blonde and the other…was that _pink_ hair?

He shook his head—kids these days, _honestly_—and repeated his order, this time making his gun visible. He had a hard time making his voice heard over the boisterous screaming of the spiky-haired blond in the middle, so he waited until the boy appeared to be calming down as the girls let go of him and he quieted. Just how old were these kids? From this distance, they couldn't be older than fifteen.

Again, they ignored his order—_even with the gun out?_ he thought. Well, at least the ones in the middle were paying attention now.

"Drop your weapons on the ground and put your hands up where I can see them," Gene tried again, speaking slowly, clearly, and loudly. The four conscious members in the middle were exchanging looks and speaking to each other, but none had the look of one about to obey his orders. Again he couldn't hear what they were saying from this distance.

He decided enough was enough, and he really needed to get the message across. Use force if necessary, he reminded himself, and pulled the trigger of his gun, aiming it at the ground in front of the kids nearest himself. He was ready to shout at them the same orders, but never got the chance.

It happened too fast for him to follow clearly, but he was fairly certain that the boy nearest him had shouted something and then thrown one of his knives at him, because when he looked down at his gun, he found that it was skewered with one of the strange knives. His eyes widened seeing this. That wasn't _possible_. You don't just throw a knife and have it go straight through a metal gun from that distance. The accuracy and power that would take…And these were just _kids_. And earlier they had jumped over his car and outran it at 40 mph! He hadn't sped up for fear of hitting them at the time. What in the world was going on?

"This is some paranormal shit…" he muttered to himself as he pulled out his spare, dropping the useless gun onto his car floor and wondering why no one had shot at the boy to defend him, as all cops were trained to do. Looking at his partner, he found out why. The other man was pulling his own spare out, his normal gun abandoned on the seat, having been severed almost completely in half by a star-like contraption still stuck in it. He could hear over the radio his captain saying "hold your fire!" That was the only reason he didn't start shooting right away.

The boy in the middle with his hair in a spiky ponytail was saying something, looking around at all the members of the group before staring at the spot on the ground that Gene had just shot. Then his dark gaze landed on Gene himself, and he moved forward slightly, saying something sharply to the two boys who had been fighting. They both immediately moved to either side of him. The boy in the middle said something again, and the two girls moved to stand by the hostage while the three boys were slowly approaching the edge of the circle.

Gene watched them closely. The boy with the ponytail seemed to be the ring-leader, so he focused more on him while he told his partner Max to watch the other two, just in case they tried to pull something. They didn't have any visible weapons, but they were the two who he suspected to have mechanical weapons such as a flamethrower, if their earlier fight was any indication.

They stopped at the edge of the circle between the boy who had destroyed his gun and a girl with two buns atop her head, both of whom were still displaying weapons, and Gene waited with baited breath for what would happen next.

--

8:18 am, Day 0, San Francisco, Elm Street

Shikamaru frowned as he dropped Kakashi and used his shadow bind on Sasuke, forcing him to release the Chidori. Shikamaru ordered Ino and Sakura to restrain Naruto, who was now yelling obscenities at Sasuke. He sighed and wondered for the millionth time why he had to be captain while the circle formation expanded again to compensate for Sakura and Ino's empty spaces, leaving much wider gaps in their defensive barrier. This needed to end now.

"Sasuke," he said, looking at the other black-haired boy who copied his movements, though his expression screamed that he didn't like it. "You're not going to help anything by killing Naruto. Even if you did get the Mangekyou right now, you wouldn't know how to use it," he said in his usual lazy voice.

Shikamaru was silently thankful for his smarts. With them he was able to figure out that the only way to get this "mangekyou," which he suspected was some form of the Uchiha's bloodline (as Sasuke and Kakashi's interaction earlier had implied), had something to do with killing Naruto. "On top of that, you'd probably die from using it—didn't you hear what your sensei said? It took almost all of his chakra to bring us here. You'd be dead before you even opened a portal."

Sasuke ground his teeth together, knowing that the Nara genius was right. But the Mangekyou…his brother, with that technique, was too powerful for him—he knew that now that he had seen what Kakashi could do with it. The thought of how behind his brother he was was driving him mad. Fog seemed to cloud his head and narrow his thoughts. How did Kakashi obtain it?? Had he killed his best friend? Itachi said that was the only way! Was his brother lying? Was he playing with his head again? His gums were starting to hurt with how much pressure he was putting on them.

Naruto had stopped shouting and Ino and Sakura had hesitantly let go of him, ready to grab him again should he make any moves toward Sasuke. Shikamaru, no longer feeling resistance through his shadow bind, also cautiously released him. Now that his body was free, Sasuke glared at Naruto before turning away. He couldn't look at the other boy right now.

There was silence, only the hushed whispers from the chakra-less people around them filling the air, and then a shout from one of the men hiding behind the moving monsters caught their attention. The four in the middle glanced at him, not understanding what he had said. He was holding a black thing that slightly resembled a boomerang in shape and had one side pointed at them, his arm coming around the edge of one of the opening sides of the monster, which he was crouching behind. A quick glance around confirmed that the other people were in similar positions. He said something again, and they all heard the authority and clarity of his words, though none of them could understand.

Shikamaru looked between Naruto and Sasuke. "Whatever is going on between you two, I suggest you kiss and make up now. This is no time to start fighting," he said severely. Naruto looked a little outraged at being blamed, and Sasuke opted to stare at the ground instead of any of them. Not perfect, but at least they weren't fighting again. They could sort this out later.

"Is it just me, or are they speaking a different language?" Sakura finally broke the silence, glancing between her two male teammates nervously.

Ino nodded vigorously, hoping another topic would relieve the thick tension. "Yeah, I think you're right, forehead-girl. What do we do, Shikamaru?" she asked, and Shikamaru knew that everyone was listening for his answer.

He took a deep breath, a plan already forming in his head, but whatever it was, they never found out, because at that moment a loud BANG rang through the area, and the shinobi already looking in the direction of the noise were almost able to catch the path of the bullet after it drove into the ground between Neji and Tenten.

"Live weapons!" Neji shouted, and that was all it took for the circle to release their shuriken and kunai into the black boomerangs surrounding them. The only one who didn't throw anything was Lee, but thankfully there were six others in the circle and twelve of the enemy—two each was easy, and each genin was already clutching a new pair of weapons by the time their released ones had hit.

"Stop!" Shikamaru shouted, looking around at the group. "We don't want to antagonize them any more than they think we have. We're the foreigners, not them." After making sure no one else was going to attack (from either side), he glanced down at the smoking hole in the ground, frowning deeply. These people had weapons of great power and speed. He hadn't seen the attack, even with his ninja training, and he certainly wouldn't be able to dodge it at that speed.

Shikamaru turned his gaze onto the man who had used his weapon and saw he was sporting another. He quickly made up his mind.

"Naruto, Sasuke," he said without turning around. "Flank me," he ordered, and despite their fight earlier, they both immediately appeared at his sides. "Don't take any weapons out," he told them when he saw them going for their holsters, "just be ready for anything." They both nodded.

"Ino, Sakura, you two watch over Hatake-sensei." And with that, the three boys started moving toward the edge of the circle between Neji and Tenten where the bullet had hit.

They stopped just short of exiting the circle, hearing Ino and Sakura moving over to Kakashi several feet behind them. Shikamaru stared at the black man some twenty feet away from them and then called in a clear voice, "Can you understand Japanese?"

The man didn't move. Shikamaru frowned, trying to think of how he could communicate.

It felt stupid, but he pointed at himself with one hand and then held it to one side. He pointed at the man with his other hand and held it to his other side. He then made a walking motion with the hand representing himself and hand-walked past the man, continuing until it was obvious he had simply passed the man. He then dropped his hands and waited for the man to do something.

The man leaned closer to the monster and he heard a click and the man saying something. He was surprised to hear another voice that sounded muffled come from the area. Was he talking to the monster? Neji said earlier that they weren't alive. The muffling sounded faintly familiar, and he suddenly realized it sounded like he was talking on some form of walkie-talkie like they did in ninja training—with headphones.

"Someone's talking in the smelly thing in front of Hinata," Kiba suddenly said from between Tenten and Hinata. Akamaru barked in agreement with his master, both about the speech and the nasty smell of the alien thing in front of them. Kiba patted the puppy's head. "You're right, Akamaru. It doesn't smell alive at all. Smells kind of like a stove."

That confirmed his suspicions. "They have walkie-talkies," he informed the group, which seemed to react with a small yet silent wave of surprise. "They're obviously human, even if they don't have chakra like us. I'm guessing that this world doesn't have such a thing," he admitted his theory, but stopped talking as the man who was talking in front of him went silent and appeared around the side of what he now guessed was some kind of machine.

He watched as the man slowly stood, holding his black boomerang up. Naruto and Sasuke tensed, and Neji and Tenten were preparing to attack, but Shikamaru ordered them down. He watched the man slowly put the boomerang down on top of the machine with a soft 'clank', then start making hand motions of his own. He copied Shikamaru with designating them each as a hand, then hand-walked his hands together before making gabbing motions with them and mimicking speech with mumbles that Shikamaru was sure weren't actual words.

He considered the man's proposition for a moment before nodding and starting to walk forward. The man held out his hand in an unmistakable "stop" sign, then pointed at Shikamaru's leg then at his own boomerang. Shikamaru realized he was asking him to disarm himself as well, and took his holster off, handing it to Naruto.

"Don't do anything unless I order or they cause injury," he told the group as a whole, though he stared particularly hard at Sasuke, who glared back. With that, he turned and slowly approached the man who was also slowly coming out from behind the machine. They met halfway, both keeping their hands in plain view. Shikamaru had to tilt his head back to look the taller man in the face. He idly noted that he had never seen someone this dark-skinned before. Aside from the somewhat foreign clothes, he looked like a normal civilian man.

The man was also studying him. They both stood and continued with their observations silently for several heartbeats before the man reached slowly for a pocket in the front of his buttoned shirt. Shikamaru watched his movements closely, and could feel several of his teammates' eyes doing the same. He felt his heart beating a little faster than normal at the possibilities, but it was okay—the man only pulled out a notepad and a pencil. He then proceeded to put pencil to paper and before long was handing the notepad over to Shikamaru.

Shikamaru looked at the picture. It showed a crude drawing of a kunai and had a big X over it. He held out his hand and the man gave him the pen. In dark blue lines, he drew one of their boomerangs (which looked a little more decent than the man's drawing) and then drew an X through it as well before handing the the notepad back.

The man frowned when he saw it and shook his head, so Shikamaru looked behind him at his team and then back at the man and shook his head as well. After a pause, the man pointed at Kakashi, and Shikamaru tilted his head. The man pointed again, so Shikamaru pointed at him as well and said "Sensei." The man blinked, but seemed to understand that particular word, and nodded. It got Shikamaru's hopes up a little, so he pointed to himself and said clearly, "Shikamaru."

The man stared at him, then said in a questioning, deep voice, "Shkamuru?"

The pony-tailed boy pronounced it again slowly, "Shi-ka-ma-ru."

The man tried again, and he got it right, but there was a definite accent to the word that normal people didn't carry, and it was slow. Shikamaru proceeded to point to the man, who then pointed to himself and said "Jin."

Shikamaru repeated it easily, and Jin smiled—just a little. But it was a start. Shikamaru gave a little smile back, as best he could, but before they could proceed with anything else, a distant rumbling reached his ears. He looked around Jin to see that more machines were speeding towards them down the black pathway and a glance behind informed him that, yes, there were more on both sides. These new and larger machines stopped behind the first eight and poured more people out of their square backs. They held different looking boomerangs, but the shinobi were quick to realize that they were reinforcements of some kind as they got behind the original eight machines with the first people.

Shikamaru turned back to the dark man as he started talking across the space to one of the newly arrived men. After their brief talk, Jin sighed and Shikamaru pointed to the paper again, which was handed over. He did a quick sketch of their correct positions, then showed it to the man and circled his team and himself and made an arrow pointing them down the street, past the two walls of machines and away.

Jin shook his head again and Shikamaru sighed and slouched. What was with these guys? They just wanted to pass through. How troublesome…

One of the new men shouted something, and Jin started backing away slowly. Shikamaru had a bad feeling about this. He started backing toward his group as well. "High alert," he ordered simply. "Tighten the circle, all" he said, following his own orders by falling between Naruto and Sasuke as Sakura and Ino joined the circle as well, bringing their numbers up to twelve at the ready. They all backed up slowly until the circle was tight enough to defend easily without getting in each others' ways.

Shikamaru saw that Jin was back behind his machine with his boomerang pointed at them again. _Great, back to square one._ Maybe it would be easier if he just caught them all in his shadow bind long enough for the team to escape and then book it himself. Without chakra, they couldn't follow him up a wall, right?

His mental fantasies were cut off by a sharp "Shh"ing sound that he couldn't place, and then the world was quickly going dark as he felt a pointed pain in his shoulder. He only managed to turn as he fell to see that half the team was already down with darts sticking out of various places in their bodies.

_Sleepers_ he managed to think before he hit the ground on his side, out like a light.

--

8:26 am, Day 0, San Francisco, Elm Street

Gene listened as the ring-leader asked him something, and this time he could actually hear. It was only his years of experience that allowed him to distinguish the language, but there was nothing he could do just from knowing what language the kid was speaking, so he stayed still and alert. The boy seemed to realize that he was not being understood, as a few seconds later he was using hand motions.

Once Gene understood what the boy was signing, he leaned back toward the car and grabbed the com. "Bill, the kid's speaking Japanese, I can't understand him. He wants to pass us and move on, over," he told his commanding officer.

"Kssh—We have explicit orders to detain them. Try to keep them talking, 'the professionals' should be here shortly. Then we can hand it over to them and forget this mess, over—Shh" Bill said, and Gene could hear the derision in the way he said "the professionals."

Click. "What do you want me to do? Over" Unclick.

"Shh—Try to reason with the kid. Maybe you can get them to stand down and come quietly, you're good at that. Make sure to have him take his little fanny pack off first, though—unit 4 said that's where they keep their knives. Good luck, over and out—Shhh."

Gene sighed and moved back to look at the group of children who had been talking up until they saw him again. He took a big mental breath and then stood, very slowly so as not to startle anyone into offense. He made sure to point his gun away from them so they wouldn't get the wrong idea as he placed it on top of his car. Maybe they'd feel less threatened without it. Unfortunately, it didn't do much for his nerves.

He slowly made hand signs to indicate that he wanted to talk. The boy ring-leader nodded and started walking forward, but Gene held up his hand and made the boy take off the pouch on the side of his leg, like Bill had suggested. The boy, thankfully, complied, which made Gene feel a little better, now that the playing fields were hopefully evened. He cautiously stepped around his car door as the boy began walking towards him and met him halfway to the circle.

He was surprised at how young and small the boy looked. Now that Gene saw him up close, he thought the kid couldn't be a day over 13. He had a too-large vest over a strange netted undershirt and seemed to wear a perpetual pout. His eyes were slanted with a dark iris and just looking at the boy's hair-do made Gene's scalp ache. Apart from his hair, he looked like the average boy. In fact, he might blend even with his hair, with the way kids looked these days.

He decided to start things by trying to get the group to put the knives away, so he took out a sketch pad and pen and drew one of their knives—drawing was not his forte—with a darkened X through it and handed the pad to the boy. Gene gave the pen to the kid when he asked for it and waited as the boy drew something before handing the pad back to him. The new picture was of a gun with an X through it as well. Of course they couldn't disarm, so he shook his head at the kid, getting somewhat exasperated. Who did they think they were to ask the police to stand down?

The kid looked back at his group then shook his head at Gene. _Damn_, Gene thought. _Mutual distrust_. He glanced over the group again and his eyes landed on the hostage lying in the circle with the blonde and pink-haired girls standing over him. He pointed at the unconscious man, and the boy in front of him looked between them before pointing at the hostage as well and saying "sensei."

Gene blinked. Sensei, like in karate? As in "yes, grasshopper?" That was their teacher? He nodded thoughtfully. Yeah, that seemed to fit with what he'd seen the kids doing. He suddenly felt relieved that the man wasn't conscious. Who knew what a full grown man with their abilities could do compared to a group of kids?

"Shcamurue" the boy said, pointing at himself. Gene stared at him. Was that supposed to be a word?

He tried to repeat it, but apparently he got it wrong because the boy repeated it slowly. Gene thought he might have gotten it right the second time because the boy turned his finger on him. "Gene," he answered simply, pointing to himself with his thumb. The boy, Shikamarue, repeated it, pronouncing it with a sharp "I" sound like in "macaroni," and he couldn't help the little smile that tugged at his lips at the arrogant tone to the kid's voice. Young men always thought they could do everything. Shikamaru's pout loosened somewhat in response to Gene's smile. Maybe they were getting somewhere?

Just then, several vans drove up and parked behind the first two lines of cars. Gene watched as people exited the back compartment and instantly recognized the guns in their hands as tranquilizers. So, these must be "the professionals," as Bill had called them.

"They want us to leave them alone and let them go!" Gene said, only then realizing he didn't even know where the kids planned to go and how stupid he must sound.

It seemed back luck was with him today, because one of the men crouching behind another unit's car hood yelled back "Where are they heading?"

"I don't know—they speak Japanese, I can't communicate properly!" he informed them, and sighed when the man told him to back away slowly.

Shikamaru asked for the pad again, and Gene didn't want to start anything, so he handed it over and watched as the kid tried to get him to let them go again. He gave his negative answer and felt the familiarity in the action of the boy slouching, the pout coming back to his face full force. In that instant, he really did look every inch the stubborn, lazy teenager. But then Gene had to back off because the man yelled for him to clear the area again, and the familiarity of the situation broke into reality.

He got back behind his car door and re-aimed his gun, watching as the ring-leader gave orders and the circle tightened back to its first shape with every kid at the ready.

And then the tranquilizers were being shot. Three boys, including the one he had just been talking to, and three girls—the one with hair buns and the two that had been standing over their teacher—went down first, but two boys and one girl somehow managed to deflect the first tranquilizers shot at them while two other boys, one with sunglasses and one the spiky-haired blonde from the fight, were hit but seemed unaffected.

The boy in sunglasses was quickly shot at again and, after being hit with two more darts, he finally collapsed. The whole time, he had been throwing out knives at an incredible speed that blurred his arms. The sides of the cars he had been aiming at were now peppered with the small knives, and based on the screams, it seemed likely that he had hit someone.

The blond boy had also taken several more darts, but unlike the sunglasses-wearing one, he was still standing and not throwing anything back. The girl and the boy with short, dark hair had finally been hit and were down, and Gene watched in silent awe as the last boy suddenly went into a violent spin, his long hair swinging wildly, and a giant dome of blue light surrounded him, the tranquilizer darts getting caught up in the flow. When the light faded, the boy was standing in a small crater and slowing his spin while grabbing several darts out of the air currents left behind by the dome, which he then proceeded to expertly hurl back at the shooters. But it seemed this was his last move as a dart finally caught him from behind and he collapsed as well.

Now there was only one boy standing, the blond from the fight who was dressed all in orange. Gene wondered how he was still standing when he could see at least seven darts sticking out of him from this side alone. By all accounts, the boy should have been not only unconscious but more than likely _dead_. The shooters must have been thinking the same thing (or maybe more were taken out than Gene had thought) because their firing had slowed to almost a stop before it did actually stop.

Now the only sounds in the clearing were the whimpers from the injured and the reloading clicks of the guns. The boy wasn't moving at all, and Gene wondered if maybe he had lost consciousness but stayed upright. That thought was immediately dashed to tiny pieces and forgotten as the boy suddenly threw his head back and screamed—roared, more like, and it terrified many that it didn't sound exactly human—as a red substance that was something between smoke and liquid burst from his body, bathing the area in red light.

A tremor ran down every spine present as an oppressing wave of utter terror swept through the area. Gene watched as the blond fireball seemed to disappear and reappear by the first car in the opposite line up. He swung a fist at the car, and the red substance followed the line of his arm, extending to hit the car and smashing it into the building adjacent to it. Gene silently prayed that whoever had been hiding behind that car had moved out of the way even as he gaped at the impossibility of the situation. The boy continued in this way as he went through the line of police cars, ignoring the vans in the background. Sometimes he upended them and sometimes he smashed them instead. The street was now littered with glass and car parts, and several officers were booking it down the street to escape the boy's wrath, but he didn't seem to notice them as he turned and headed for Gene's car line-up. Gene's heart jumped into his throat, his adrenaline pumping overtime as the blonde appeared a few feet from him next to the car to his left and shoved it several hundred feet away with a loud screeching sound and the smell of burning rubber.

And then the boy turned and Gene was facing blood red eyes and lethal looking fangs. Things almost seemed to go in slow motion, and the last thing Gene noticed in his hazy adrenaline and fear drugged state as he pulled the trigger was that the boy's cheeks looked abnormally dark compared to the rest of his face. And then the bullet, his bullet, was in the boy's gut, and the blonde was keeling over forwards to hold his bleeding stomach, and tranquilizer darts were hitting him again from the ruins around the street.

The red fear that had permeated the area abruptly vanished, leaving behind it the destruction of nearly an entire police unit.

Gene was taking deep, shaky breaths to try to calm himself, his gun still raised. He vaguely heard over the radio that the paramedics were on the way, and someone was patting his shoulder and forcefully removing his gun from his hand, but they couldn't remove his eyes from the bloody orange heap in front of him.

And before he could fully take in the situation, before he could do anything but try to breathe normally, the strange children were all being carried away and loaded into the vans brought by "the professionals." Seeing the blond getting moved seemed to snap Gene out of his daze, and he realized that it was his partner Max who was now telling him that he did good, but he needed to get up and help them move an officer who'd had a knife go through her foot.

Gene forced himself to rise and perform his duty, even as he watched out of the corner of his eyes as the vans drove away with the living proof of his impossible memories from today.

--

AN: Alright, this idea has been bugging me incessantly; it's too much fun to ignore. If I've got anything about police procedures and such wrong, you're welcome to tell me, 'cause this was all done without any outside research. The genin check-ups are my own creation as well. Also, anything to do with San Francisco is completely made up, so if you live there and know that "East Side" is never empty (or non-existant, as is probably the case), don't stone me, k?

Give props to my new editor/beta, SoreNoMiko. She's awesome. She edited this chapter for me, so this chapter is a refreshed version of the original. Don't worry about needing to re-read it if you already did—nothing major was changed.

As far as Japanese vs. English goes, I only know a few jutsu, and I find it pointless for ninja to shout it in the middle of a battle and announce their attacks (they actually only think the words in canon, sometimes), so some things won't be named at all while others will have their original Japanese names and still others will be English. Some words, like Godaime and Kyuubi, just sound stupid after translation, so I like them as they originally are, and I think adding the suffixes (-sama, -san, -chan, etc) gives a little inside information on character relationships, so I leave those things.

And now for questions:

1. Was Sasuke's attack on Naruto done well? It sorta felt rushed to me, but I'm trying to examine what would have happened had Shikamaru, at the very least, have made it to the Valley of the End with Naruto. I think things would have been very different.

That's all I have for this chapter. Thanks for reading and I would really appreciate your opinion on the story so far. Next chapter, meet "the professionals" and see what's happened to our wayward group of shinobi.

-Itallia


	2. Leave it to the Professionals

Disclaimer: Don't own Naruto, but this fanfic and the stories and OCs within it are mine.

Summary: We've all seen the stories where someone is transported to the Naruto world, so what if things are switched. How is our world going to handle Naruto? Non-crack

Note 1: The start of this story is set pre-Sasuke betrayal, post-Godaime. It's about the time that Sasuke is released from the hospital, but before Sound gets him.

Note 2: I changed the summary on the outside of the story.

--

Humane Studies

Chapter 1: Leave it to the Professionals

9:47 am, Day 0, location unknown, office

"So let me get this straight. We sent in seven vans, each loaded with five men armed with tranquilizers, not including the drivers. There were eight police cars with a total of twelve officers already stationed there with _guns_, and you're telling me that a bunch of ten-year-olds managed to total four cars, sever three ankles, send our own tranques' back at two of the shooters, _kill_ one man instantly and another who died later at the hospital, and successfully scare the living shit out of every man and woman present. That about it?" The voice was terrifyingly flat and calm.

The messenger nodded meekly, wisely deciding, on a moment of inspiration, _not_ to mention the other minor injuries sustained to their personnel or the damage at the site.

"…alright. You're dismissed."

The messenger nodded thankfully and retreated with quick steps, almost forgetting to close the door behind him.

The office was silent except for the shuffling of papers. The man who had sent the other out was sitting at his desk, searching through the papers littering it. He looked to be quite passed his prime but not ready to push up daisies by a long shot. Gray-shot hazel-colored hair was cut short and parted neatly in a valiant attempt to cover up a balding spot. As he moved aside a paper, his sharp eyes spotted what he was searching for. He picked up the small piece of paper and began dialing on his office phone. He waited patiently as the phone rang, though he didn't have to wait long.

"Joshua speaking, Mr. Dover," the voice on the phone said immediately after picking up the phone. The aged man silently congratulated himself for making a special line for himself. It made things so much quicker—meaning he could give orders without having to explain to his employees who they were talking to.

"I want you to get me the best Japanese speaking team we have. Make sure there are at least three experts for each field. Station them in Area 51, Complex D7. Contact me when you have picked a team and I will send them the job outline."

The young recruit on the line was shocked. All of the Complexes in the D department were made for extensive research and large numbers of experiments. This particular department also had the best security, both in defense and clearance. There hadn't been a group assigned to the D department since 1956. This project must be very large and important. He affirmed his superior that he would obey the order and, immediately after hanging up, was scrolling through the computer database on the different units that belonged to their company.

Mr. Dover hung up the phone and leaned back in his comfortable black office chair, folded his hands over his stomach, and stared at the ceiling. A smug look came to his face quite quickly as he thought of all the possibilities.

_This is sure to be interesting_…he thought before going back to work on outlining the job's points and specific details confidently.

--

10:03 am, Day 0, Japan, city unknown, laboratory

A woman in a pristine white lab coat stood by a lab station, carefully measuring out and mixing liquid in several containers. _Ah, damn, those idiots did it wrong again._ _It was probably Shota_, she reflected with a scowl. That moron Shota never had any respect for her small, personal experiments.

She sighed as she emptied the corrupted supplies and rinsed the containers. As she began putting them in the above shelf, quick footfalls heading her way caught her attention. She raised an eyebrow as she turned around to find Kebi walking briskly towards her with purpose in his steps. She filed the rest of the containers away before turning to meet the slightly taller man.

She noted the uncertain expression on his face as she studied it. This was a member of her team, Rotuse Kebi. He, like the rest of her team, had a Doctorates in his area of study, which happened to be physiology, and basic knowledge of all other areas. The man delicately fingered his gel held fohawk before motioning behind him with his clipboard.

"Shia, there's someone on the phone for you." His twitchy attitude spoke volumes about what he wasn't saying. Shia raised her left eyebrow to join the right as a prompt for him to go on. "The call," he finished reluctantly, "is from headquarters."

Shia's face cleared instantly, a blank expression covering her now whirling thoughts. She thanked Kebi and ordered him back to work before making her way to her office.

So that was it, then.

The relationship between headquarters and her team was a very strange one. Then again, her team wasn't exactly normal itself. To start off, they were the youngest team in their sector, their youngest member being a mechanics expert named Mante Raifu, who was just over 28, and the oldest being the head of Physiology at 30 years old, Vinlo Kerisu. Shia herself was barely 29, being the second youngest.

As miraculous as it was, they had all been friends in high school. After they had gone their separate ways for college and made it out with degrees in their own respective fields, which were many, they had somehow come together again to create this rag-tag group and pulled a few thousand dollars out of their asses for their first facility. From there, they had worked tirelessly to expound on some of their ideas and create something of merit.

Through their work, a machine had been created that could split and re-stabilize atoms without causing a nuclear explosion. It was the first of its kind, and was, to date, their proudest creation. After much arguing (disguised as "debate"), they finally agreed upon the simple name of the Atom Splitter. The recognition this machine brought to Shia and her team was what she had always dreamed of while growing up. The funding that came with it was just an added bonus and a motivation to do more. They had been employed into an elite group of scientific teams that answered to the government of the United States, despite their agencies being all over the world. They themselves hadn't needed to move away from their native country in Japan. It had been an ecstatic time, what with the new machinery and research from other experts now at their disposal.

At least, it was until they realized that they were now severely limited in their capabilities. Their own invention had been taken away from them for study, so they hadn't been able to work any more on it. Mante Raifu said that it was being used by the government now. It was probably the truth, too. When that kid said stuff, you didn't question it. He was probably hacking the database again, the sneaky little techno geek.

So with these limitations, it was understandable that they were a bit suspicious and wary of the government they answered to. The things they were creating were not simple toys—they were real and, as she herself realized with a stab some three years earlier, possibly deadly. With that in mind, they had all collaborated to watch how much they let the government know about their research. It was difficult, and they often had to keep their ideas in theory only, but it was the only way to prevent their inventions from being stolen again and most likely used for nefarious purposes.

So this was their relationship with headquarters—a secretive one, thought Shia as she walked down a hallway to her office entrance, a simple door with no windows for plenty of privacy. It was one of the only rooms in the facility that didn't have a camera, a feature she was exceedingly thankful for when she wanted to discuss another idea that they weren't planning on showing the government. When this news spread, it had become their unofficial meeting room for such things, to her chagrin. She'd had to slap the inconsiderately prying hands of Kochiwa Hitome and Masayo Shota several times each.

She opened the door to her office and walked over to the suddenly foreboding phone, picking it up and bringing the ear piece to listening range.

"Bikenu Shia speaking," she said, keeping her voice level as she waited in turmoil for whatever this phone call would bring.

"Ah, yes, Bikenu-sama. This is Joshua—" wow, this kid's Japanese was pretty choppy, and there was a heavy English accent on it. And his name translated so strangely, too. Oh, he was still talking. "—calling on behalf of Mr. Dover—" ah, the boss of bosses, "—to give you a new assignment."

"We haven't finished the current project," she replied blandly.

"You are to drop any currently running assignments. The new assignment information will be faxed to you as soon as it is finished being written. You are to follow all instructions without question. Sufficient funds will be supplied to your account." Shia raised an eyebrow at this. She could hear the "indefinite" wanting to be spoken in that sentence. It wasn't often that a team received an unlimited amount of money for their research. This must be big.

"Good day to you, Bikenu-sama." And he hung up.

Shia placed the phone back and stood with her hand still on it for some time, deep in thought. She was startled out of it by a mechanical sound, and realized with some surprise that it was her fax machine. She watched it printing the papers at high speed, half-disbelieving that it could already be the assignment. Was it really that important?

The machine's robotic sounds died away as it printed the last of many papers that now lay in a neat stack in the holder. She hesitated momentarily in picking them up, but finally took a heavy seat in her chair and pulled them towards her.

Her eyes darkened as they scanned down the assignment description and orders, and she realized that she had just found the answer to her earlier wondering question.

This _was_ big.

It took her a few minutes to read the job outline, and a few more to digest the implications, but she resignedly picked up the phone and hit the extension for speaker-phone.

"Attention all personnel," she said into the phone, knowing that her voice was now echoing throughout the complex. "We have just been ordered to drop the current assignment, repeat, drop the current assignment, and have been reassigned long-term to Area 51. On the record, everyone is ordered to drop their current experiments and report immediately to Sector 18 for transport." That was all she could say over speaker phone--the implications of "on the record" would not be lost to anyone on _her_ team, she knew. They would all diligently destroy any evidence suggesting unassigned experimentation. "We will be provided equipment and facility in the new area. Thank you."

Shia hung up the phone with a heavy heart, knowing how difficult the move would be for those who had family, and thought about her Department Heads who would come bursting in for an explanation she would not be present to give. She grabbed a few personal items, dumped all her computer information onto a device, wiped the hard-drive clean (she'd have to thank Raifu for showing her how to do that without it being dug up or tracked), and nabbed the job description from the table before leaving the office—not _hers_ anymore, just _the_ office—and making her way to Sector 18, where the highly advanced underground transport unit was docked.

As she approached the area and noticed the familiar faces milling about, she was secretly pleased that the closest thing she had to family now was her team, which came with her everywhere. She managed to enter the transportation unit, which looked similar to a train, and locate her own secluded compartment before anyone could find and question her. She then locked the door and settled down for what promised to be a relatively quick ride for the distance they would travel followed by a meeting from hell.

Oh the joys of family.

--

3:47 pm, Day 0, America, Area 51

After exiting the "train," which had transported them from Japan to Area 51 in America within several hours, Shia and her team had been sent deep underground to Complex D7 where the subjects were being held. The Complex was larger than normal, meant for long-term assignments and more dangerous experimentation than the usual. It was also specifically made for the use of experiments on multiple subjects, and Shia shuddered to think what could have happened within these walls before they belonged to her team. She silently made a promise to not permit any inhumane treatment befall her subjects while she was captain--not that she thought her team capable of such abominable actions, but the point remained.

Of course, during the movement from shuttle to Complex, she was subject to the questioning looks of her team, so she kept a carefully blank countenance and mentally prepared herself for the explanation. It wasn't often that a team was uprooted and sent to another facility like this, though it was not unheard of and certainly not unexpected. The chances of it happening were part of the job description, after all; the risk of being uprooted came with the territory.

The three elevators they were descending from came to a halt and the doors sprung open with a little "ting," revealing a relatively small foyer room. As the team shuffled out, they spotted their few bags on an elongated table ahead of them. People grabbed their things and then lined up routinely while Shia turned to the wall next to the elevator, logged in with her fingerprint and the access key, and then brought up a map of the facility.

She turned around and found her entire team staring at her, clutching their bags. They were standing in rows according to their field of study, which made four rows plus the clean-up crew. At the front of the four rows was the Department Head, and the two directly behind the Heads were the other two experts for that field. Milling in the back of the rows were a generous amount of helpers. Shia took a deep, silent breath to calm her stage fright and then pressed a button on the monitor behind her. The giant screen on the wall behind her team flickered to life with the image of an aerial view of their new facility. (simple layout here: www. deviantart. com / deviation / 54363622 /)

The map was very precise. Shia and her team examined it, discussing who was going where and getting nitty-gritty about details. Shia broke up a mock-argument between the Medical and Physiology departments over who got which bathroom by suggesting that they actually go and explore the area.

"Which door is it through?" someone from the technical team asked while glancing to the right and left: there was a single door on either side of the room, not including the elevator door opposite the television screen.

"This complex is located through the left door," Shia said with a gesture. "The right door leads to our living quarters. Everyone, please choose a room in the living quarters and leave your stuff there, then go explore the D complex. The keys should be in the rooms. Meet back here in an hour."

There was a general exodus from the room to the door on the right. When Shia finally fought her way through the crowded doorway, she claimed the first room she found available and dumped her pack on the bed. The room looked nice but plain; at least there was a bathroom attached in the back. All of the rooms were identical, so Shia found it quite astonishing to imagine that each room also had its own bathroom. She left her room then, grabbing the key off the desk and locking it. Once she was back into the public area, she took a better look around. It was a large open living space. In the middle was a kitchen area, benches for seating, and couches with a single large flat-screen. Doors peppered the walls.

Shia exited through the entrance door, which stood alone on its wall, and back into the elevator room, passed the television screen, and through the other door into the D complex. She found herself walking on a black metal pathway, suspended over two stories of open air. She gripped the metal bars that made for a rail and looked out over the entire facility. Above her was a vast space of empty air that would have made the fourth story. As it was, she was standing on the third floor. The third floor was comprised completely of the metal walkway she currently stood on. Part of it was suspended over open air and attached to the walls, extending around the entire length of the complex, which was circular in shape. The rest of the walkway sat on the roof of the second story, which in turn sat on the first story, making the metal walkway like an X within a circle. The first and second stories were shaped like a square with hallways pointing out from its four corners. The square part was situated in the middle of the entire circular complex and housed the offices on the first story. The second story was storage space.

At the center of the offices was Shia's office space. An elevator connected to Shia's office came through the roof of the square office/storage complex and ascended to the empty air of the fourth floor. There was a metal observation deck nestled into the ceiling, and the elevator was the only connection to it.

Shia walked along the metal balcony, ignoring the doors along the curving wall next to her and instead noting that the metal floor was shaped like chicken-coop wire so that you could see through it. She came to one of the "hallway" extensions from the central square and followed the metal walkway to the elevator at the center of the complex. She descended to the first floor, which was her new office, and looked around. The room was spacious, and had a large circular table on one side. There were empty boxes stacked by the door and various pieces of evidence already in drawers or on the counter next to the round table. Shia spotted a computer desk in the opposite corner and went over to begin uploading her files onto the computer. While she was waiting for the uploads to complete, she stepped out of her office door and into the hallway. She followed the hallway and found that it surrounded her room. She recalled that the map had showed that the doors along the wall not connecting to her own office were the offices of the other experts. One door was ajar, and Shia peeked into it to see Kire, Department Head of Psychology, setting up his stuff. He had left the door on the other side of his office open as well, and through it Shia could see the Experimentation Area.

She stealthily slipped through Kire's office while he had his back turned and found herself in an oddly shaped area full of equipment and lab stations. Aside from her, no one else was in this area. Inside the curving wall in front of her were large empty spaces that looked as though they had been cut out of the wall. These were docking bays for the rooms that the subjects were placed in. From what she had read during the trip here, Shia knew that these "Subject Rooms" (or SRs) were normally docked within the outer circular walls of the complex on the third floor but could be "ordered" to the docks on the first floor. Looking up, Shia could see the metal walkway two stories up along with the doors in the third story wall, and farther up, the ceiling of the fourth story.

One of the rectangular "hallways" was to her right. From here Shia could see the entire length of it. There was space between either end of it and the next wall so that people could walk passed the hallways without going through them. It kind of reminded her of a mobile home sitting in-between the center square complex and the outer circular wall. There were two doors on it, one on either end. She walked through the door closest to her and found herself in a long room with comfortable looking couches and a basic kitchenware--a snack room. Another door at the end opened into a public-styled bathroom, which had a second door that again exited back into the Experimentation Area, though now Shia was right next to the empty docking areas for the SRs. It seemed the "hallways" split the Experimentation Area into four sectors, one for each field.

Shia took the last few steps to the end of the dividing hallway and found the space between the end of it and the outer, circular wall. Pushed against the wall was a spiral staircase made of the same metal as the third story walkway, and looking up Shia saw that the spiral staircase connected to the third story walkway. Passed the staircase was another open Experimentation Area. A few personnel were scattered in that area, taking out lab supplies and turning on machines to test for functionality.

Shia checked her watch: 4:41. She cut across the empty Experimentation Area, back through Kire's office (once again passing without him noticing) and into the office hallway. She passed a couple personnel on the way to her office, mentally cursing the fact that there was only one door and four ways to get into the hallway. After she'd rounded two corners, she finally found her office door and immediately went to the computer to check the upload progress. Mercifully, it was finished, and Shia was able to print five copies of the job description that had been faxed to her. Setting these around the table, Shia then used the elevator to go up to the third floor. She walked across the metal walkway that led straight into the small foyer room where she had said to meet her. Other personnel were also arriving and getting back into rows, and soon the entire team was in the same positions as earlier.

Shia motioned to the television screen, which still had the map on display, as she began to speak.

"Now that we've all settled in and had a look at the D complex, I'll explain a few of the finer points. The SRs, Subject Rooms, are stationed on the third floor and accessible through the metal stairway, but the complex has been built so that the rooms can shift down to the first floor in the EA, Experimentation Area; all you have to do is put in the subject's code number in the control panel next to an empty docking areas on the first floor and the SR should come to you. Now keep in mind that sometimes when calling for a subject's room there will be a delay. One reason is that the room required might already be in another team's use, but as soon as the subject is no longer needed, the room should move. I expect all of you to keep your physical testing on the subjects as brief as possible; you can always watch the results of an experiment through the live-feed cameras in the SRs. Also, the importance of your need for the subject is ranked. If it is an emergency situation, then hit that button and the room will move regardless of the SR's current location. This might create a little bit of confusion, especially if someone gets shuttled to a different EA, but I think you can all manage."

A couple suspicious snickers and shoulder-shoves ran through the crowd, but at least the concurrent nods were somewhat pacifying.

"The elevator in the center drops directly into my office; as such, I would like that no one use it to get to their own office." Several groans of disappointment rang through the room, but Shia just stared the complainers down. She had a high regard for her privacy. "The exercise will be good for you. Anyway, the schematics for the D complex are as follows: it stretches nearly 500 feet in _diameter_, thanks to its circular shape, and takes up over 196,000 square feet. There are over 200 cameras situated in various places, 60 computers including back-ups, and a wide assortment of other machines specifically for our use."

The technical team was drooling. Shia wasn't positive that the drooling was truly necessary, but even she could admit that it was nothing to laugh at.

_And they have ten of these facilities_, Shia thought in awe. They were currently at sublevel seven, and each of these specific types of facilities were so extensive that they got their own floor--the whole floor. It was absolutely mind-boggling to think that they, as a team, had made it this far. Shia felt a minor tremor go down her spine and shuddered violently (the overreaction an old habit). No one commented on what looked like an odd twitch from Shia; everyone was used to it by now.

"Oh, I almost forgot," she said, sending select couples a look, "there will be absolutely no roommates in the living quarters, so if you've already bunked up together, you better find your own rooms." A few belligerent grumbles met her declaration, but no one outright opposed her, so she let it pass without incident. "I want the Heads to come with me to my office and everyone else to get settled in to their Experimentation Area; we'll be starting the preliminary examinations soon."

After her orders were given, the room broke into excited conversation as they milled into the D complex. The Department Heads trailed behind Shia as she led the way to the elevator that descended into her office.

Once inside her office, Shia and the Heads all sat in front of one of her job description copies at the round table. They sat in silence for a while as they read through the job description and various eyewitness accounts from the police officers at the scene, the clean-up crew, and the gun-men who had captured and brought the subjects to Area 51. Shia was the fastest reader of her companions, so when she was done she looked around the table at the reactions of the others.

The first she looked at was Enmaro Kire, Head of Psychology. As always, her gaze briefly rested on his shockingly curly hair (probably his most distinguishing feature) before she studied his expression. He was reading the paper with open worry and astonishment on his face, his jaw hanging open. Shia knew he was probably wondering if his father's vehement belief in aliens had any credibility now.

Shia switched her gaze to Kerisu Vinlo, Head of Physiology. He was of Philippine descent, with long dark pulled into a low ponytail that made him look mildly like a rebel. This image was belied by his silver glasses and the fact that Shia knew he was smarter than her, and that he should be in her place right now as leader. He had refused the top leadership role for reasons she still didn't understand. The runner up had been her, and she had accepted with as much grace as possible, all the while believing that their places should have been switched. He was currently reading the paper with excitement, obviously looking at the situation from a scientific point of view. Shia was confident that his strong moral side would kick in soon, though. He would be completely set against any dangerous experimentation.

Shia moved her gaze to Minamo Ukire, Head Medic. His yellow sunglasses flashed in the artificial lighting. He had a lazy eye, which Shia guessed that was the reason for the sunglasses. The sunglasses didn't cover his brow, though, which was currently furrowed as he looked at the paper, his lips parted just a little. Shia knew that he was as worried as Kire, though not as surprised. He was viewing the situation from a medical point of view, and she knew from experience that medics didn't like violence or destruction. He would probably be eager to check the wounds of the subjects as soon as he knew about them.

Lastly she looked at Mante Raifu, Head of Technology. With stubble unfailingly along his jaw at any given time of the day, he looked rather out of place in their professional environment. Shia, however, knew him to be as sharp as his crystal blue eyes. His current expression was of detached interest, a small smile tugging at the corners of his mouth as he read through the report. No doubt he found the whole situation as amusing as one would feel when hearing a joke they only found vaguely funny.

Shia allowed them time to read the information while she observed them, and when they had all finished, she officially began the meeting. "You've all read what happened from the time the group was first spotted to their arrival here. Attached to the back of the job description are reports from various witnesses, including several policemen and personnel of the movement crew. Samples of certain objects from the area of capture have been sent and are on that table over there," she motioned to a long counter-top against the wall to her left. She pressed a button on a remote and the large flat-screen above the table started flashing through pictures of the destroyed area. "These were taken before News Stations could arrive and after the subjects had been carted away." All of them watched the slide-show with varying expressions.

Once it was over, Shia turned the television back off. "There are thirteen individuals we have been ordered to study. There are many abnormalities with them, and they are not believed to be human--not fully, at least, as I'm sure you deduced from the report. We are to isolate these abnormalities, measure the extent, and find the causes. We are also to discover where they came from, if possible. Any questions?" she asked.

Kerisu, Head of Physiology, was the only one who moved, flipping a couple pages on the clipboard until he found whatever he was looking for. "The subjects," he started his story a little before his actual point of interest, "were immediately transported to Area 51 via the same underground shuttle we came in--did you know it goes from like 0 to mach 2 in under--"

"Kerisu," Shia interrupted with practiced ease, "we don't need you geeking out about this new technology; we already have Raifu to do that."

Raifu gave a half-hearted, "Hey!" while Kerisu said, "Oh, yes, sorry. Ahem, as I was saying, they were transported here, arriving a few hours before we did due to the distance. I'm curious about the strange activity during transport," he said, finally getting to the point. "There was some trouble keeping some of them asleep, apparently. One actually woke up for a little while before they could put him under again. It was the same one who went crazy and killed those two cops. Thankfully he was too disoriented to do any more damage. But the reports say that they've had to give him anesthesia every half hour since he was detained or else he wakes up again. And they can't find any traces of the bullet wound he received."

Shia recalled reading one such report about that, and looked at their Head Medic, Ukire. "What do you have to say about this?"

He shook his head slowly as he stared at the report. "I want to see this kid," he mumbled in wonder. "Wasn't he the same one who was shot with 23 tranques' before going down?"

Shia nodded, looking at the report of one of the transporting crew who was there when he woke up. "We'll definitely have to keep an eye on him. Anyway, the other one who was exhibiting strange behavior was the...overweight one," she tried to say delicately. "His bulk has been disappearing with the hours that slip passed, and we still don't know why that's happening. The rapid degeneration is something I want you to look into right away, okay, Ukire?"

The Head Medic nodded quickly. "I'll get right on it, Shia."

"I'll be there once I'm done with the walk-around," she called to him as the older man stood up and left the conference room to go to his station. Shia turned back to her remaining Heads. "There was, thankfully, no other strange activity during transport and the subjects are being kept unconscious until we know a fuller extent of their abilities. The strange energy the berserk boy exhibited has to be examined before we can allow them to wake up again. Raifu, I need you to start using every known reading machine on them. Find out what that energy is and how to block it. Examine the samples sent as well; there may be residue that will help you figure out what it is."

Raifu mock saluted. "It would be my pleasure, Shia-sama."

She glared at him but continued. "While they are under, I want basic scans on physical and mental health done. We'll start investigations from the readings we get. So...get to work," she finished, clapping to signal the end of the meeting.

Raifu, Head of Technology, immediately nabbed the box of samples from the area of capture off the table and left to get to work. Kerisu, Head of Physiology, left as well to start the physical examinations. Kire, Head of Psychology, stayed where he was until the room was empty, still staring unseeingly at the stack of papers in front of him.

The two sat in silence for several minutes before Shia spoke up in a quiet voice. "You should go start the cat-scans."

He looked up at her, expression intense. "How do you feel about this assignment?" he asked, staring at her hard, though she hadn't lifted her gaze from the table.

She gave a minute shrug. "It doesn't matter how I feel, we've still got to do it."

"Shia, these are people we'll be experimenting on. They're not chemicals or atoms or worms, they're living, breathing people. How can you--"

"I know!" she hissed, glaring up at him through her bangs. "But we still have to do it!" She wanted to say more. She wanted to say how she didn't like this any more than he did, that if was up to her she wouldn't be here at all, that this whole thing was so _wrong_ that is wasn't even funny, but old barriers repressed the desire as a weakness that made her too vulnerable.

Kire fell silent, matching her glare, and there was a tense moment before she broke it by looking back down at the table and saying, "I'm not going to let anything bad go on here. We're not mad scientists who dissect people to study them. We'll use machines, and...I promise," she ended awkwardly. "You should get to work now, you lazy bum," she mumbled, arms crossed over her stomach.

Out of her peripheral vision, Shia saw Kire stand up. He'd made it to the door before he turned back to her still figure and said "Alright" before leaving, closing her within a now all too quiet room.

Shia left shortly after, ignoring the uncomfortably tight feeling in her chest.

--

5:35 pm, Day 0, Area 51, Complex D7

The facility was bustling with activity, the team leaders having given instructions to their teams and assistant crews. Thankfully there seemed to be sound-suppressors in the walls, otherwise no one would be able to hear themselves think. The Technical EA was buzzing with machines; the Medical EA was doing x-rays and other scans on the degenerating, formerly large boy; the Physiological EA was scanning subjects for physical differences; the Psychological EA was scanning the brains of the subjects to check for unnatural brain patterns. The assistant crews were doing written descriptions and pictures of the subjects and noting obvious abnormalities before entering the information into the computers to create profiles for each subject. Once everyone was done, all the information would be compiled and the next course of action would be decided based on the results of the various tests. Shia planned to do this by having Kerisu take her around to the various SRs and give her the highlights of each subject's unusual qualities, but they couldn't begin much of the testing until they knew if the subjects were dangerous or not.

It was due solely to this that Shia found herself drawn to the Technical EA seeking out its Head, Raifu. She found him fiddling with a machine and examining the long line of connected papers it was spewing out onto the ground. After browsing it, he turned the machine off and pulled a piece of asphalt out of the machine with tweezers, bagged it, then turned and spotted her.

Grinning, Raifu said cheerfully, "No success yet," before moving to another machine and putting the asphalt in to start another scan.

Shia rolled her eyes and walked up next to him to watch. "What have you learned so far?"

"Well, none of the machines have detected anything yet. I've tried microwaves, gamma, beta, and alpha, and light rays: nothing. I'm starting to run out of ideas," he admitted, glancing down at the newly printed results from this machine. "UV rays are a no-go, too," he said after skimming them before moving on to a new machine.

Shia's eyebrows furrowed in thought. Technology was her least favorite of the sciences, and she knew the least about it (which was still extensive, just not as in depth as other subjects). "Let's backtrack. What do we know about the energy?"

Raifu looked up from the papers of the next machine. "Well, we know that the kid who exhibited the energy seemed to pull it out of nowhere. If it was present, it increased exponentially. If it wasn't, then he formed it on the spot. Apparently, it came from his body, but I've scanned his body and none of the machines are picking up anything from him either." He tossed away the papers in a rare show of irritation. "I don't understand how he could have created so much explosive energy--!"

They both froze and then quickly looked at each other. "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" Shia asked.

"I only have the schematics; they took away our machine. I'll need three days to build one," Raifu replied quickly.

The new spark in the air disintegrated as Shia stared at him blandly. "I know you made at least one after they took ours, you lazy ass. Go get it; you're not getting even three minutes off."

Raifu pouted, "I'll have you know I made three, all after hours, too," he answered with a sniff.

"That's because you fail at life," she replied flippantly. "Get it, now." Raifu grumbled but did as told, heading up the metal stairwell and through the doorway to the foyer and housing area. Shia tapped her fingers impatiently against a table while she waited, thoughts and ideas whirling in her head at the grand scale of possibilities that would open if they were right.

Mercifully, Raifu came running back not two minutes later, now carrying a new machine. It was box shaped and had an eject-able compartment on the side and a glass case on the top. He set it on the table, plugged it in, and turned it on. It didn't make any noise, but Shia didn't expect it to; this was the one machine that she knew like the back of her hand. Raifu then put the asphalt into the side compartment of the machine, closed it, and pressed a few buttons to activate the scan.

They both held their breath as the machine processed the information before responding with a positive.

"Amazing," Shia breathed as Raifu punched the air victoriously. "They're like a natural form of our Atom Splitter."

--

Bikenu Shia: Main Head

Mante Raifu: Head of Technology

Vinlo Kerisu: Head of Physiology

Enmaro Kire: Head of Psychology

Minamo Ukire: Head Medic

AN: First off, I have to apologize for taking so long to update. My editor has been very busy lately, otherwise I would have gotten this out sooner. So, this chapter introduces what is really going on with this story. I personally think this is exactly how we would act if supernatural beings suddenly came to our world--the government would whisk them away for experimentation and such. Thankfully, we have my OCs in charge of it, so if anyone's expecting horrible cutting and slashing experiments, you're in the wrong place and I could refer you to a couple other Naruto fanfics. Otherwise, stick around, 'cause I hope to have fun with the Naruto characters.

I will be increasing the number of OCs slowly so that everyone can adjust, and constantly repeating their placement so that it's easier to remember who's who. There will also be a list of current OCs revealed at the end of each chapter. Mostly it's just important to know who does what. As long as you've got that, you can follow the story easily.

Anyway, thank you to all my reviewers and viewers from last chapter, and welcome to anyone new. I hope you are all enjoying the story so far. I'm mostly done with the second chapter, and if I skip editing, I can probably have it out within the next week, but we'll see.

So, questions for this chapter:

1. Are the OCs easy to follow and understand?

2. Is the storyline easy to follow and understand? What about the layout of the D Complex?

3. Is this what you expected?

4. What do you think is going to happen next?

5. Out of curiosity, any theories on Chouji's apparent deflating?

Hope to see you all soon! Next chapter, see the response from both parties (the scientists and the shinobi) to each other, and get a more specific idea of what's going to happen to our beloved genin (and one chunin and jounin, lol). Until then.

-Itallia


	3. Freaks and Geeks

Charles Darwin: "Physiological experiment on animals is justifiable for real investigation, but not for mere damnable and detestable curiosity."

Disclaimer: Don't own Naruto, but this fanfic and the stories and OCs within it are mine.

Summary: We've all seen the stories where someone is transported to the Naruto world, so what if things are switched. How is our world going to handle Naruto? Non-crack

Note 1: This start of this story is set pre-Sasuke betrayal, post-Godaime. It's about the time that Sasuke is released from the hospital, but before Sound gets him.

--

Humane Studies

Chapter 2: Freaks and Geeks

5:42 pm, Day 0, America, Area 51, Complex D7, Technological Experimentation Area

Raifu, Head of Tech, got busy making belt-shaped suppressors so that the subjects could not use their energy against Shia or her team. Shia left him after he started working to share their discovery with the other Heads. Instead of going next door to the Psychology EA, she went across the large complex to Kerisu in the Physiology EA first. He was, unsurprisingly, very intrigued by the news. He ordered his team to finish up the physical examinations and went to look at the results on the screen of the Atom Splitter, and Shia followed him back to the Technology EA, curious about what he had to say and wanting a second opinion.

"I can't believe it!" Kerisu exclaimed repeatedly, pressing buttons on the Atom Splitter to get more readings. "It's not even possible, by all standards! For a human body to be able to split an atom, not cause a nuclear reaction and instead harness the energy to use as some kind of power source? It's a break-through in the history of break-throughs! I'm not even sure what fields it renovates, but--"

"It won't renovate anything if we can't do the same thing," Shia interrupted his blabbering. "There is obviously strong evidence to suggest that these people are simply anomalies: exceptions to the rules. But I agree, it is shocking," she concurred, though she'd already gotten over the shock (or at least pushed it aside to deal with later) and moved on to more pressing matters, like how to handle the situation with this new piece of information. "The idea behind the belts that Raifu is making is a safety measure. It's very probable that all the subjects can do what the one displayed with radioactive energy, so one belt shall be made for each subject. What I want him to work on next is a machine to read the levels of this energy and figure out what atoms are being split, exactly."

"So after the belts are done, we can let the subjects wake up?" Raifu asked from his place with a screwdriver, not looking up from his work. His assistance crew and two technical experts were hanging around him to see how he made the contraption. They would then be able to make more once he was done, speeding up the process of creating thirteen of the belts.

Shia nodded in affirmative to his question and thought Kerisu would have squealed with glee were he a girl, he was so giddy. She _could_ hear a suspicious keening coming from his direction. "How much longer, Raifu?" she asked.

"Give me a couple more minutes to finish this one and it should only be ten to fifteen minutes 'til we have enough for all the subjects," he murmured while looking for a different tool on the rack in front of him.

Shia resisted the urge to sigh. "Kerisu, go tell Kire about this and then make sure your team is finishing those physical reports. I'm gonna go tell Ukire and check on his progress with that bulky subject."

Kerisu readily agreed and swiftly disappeared to the left into the Psychology EA where Kire and his team were doing cat-scans on the subjects. Shia herself went to the right, passing by the metal stairway and into the bleached clean feel of the Medical EA. It smelled like disinfectant. Shia spotted Ukire, the Head Medic, standing in front of one of the SRs. It had been moved down into an outpost, but the other four in the area were empty. The walls of the SRs were specially made to serve as one-way looking panels, two-way windows, or a solid wall. Ukire was standing in front of the SR, and it was made to be a two-way window at the time. As she came up next to Ukire, Shia noticed the boy bound inside the room. He was strapped to a bed in the center of the room while doctors and nurses milled about him. Ukire was watching through the glass, holding a clipboard that he frequently looked down at.

"Have you figured it out yet?" asked Shia, nodding towards the brownish-red haired boy on the bed.

"No, I haven't, and the minimizing continues at an alarming rate. He may still look big, but apparently he was twice this size when he first got here. I'm running tests on his internal organs as we speak. Maybe they'll give us a hint as to what is going on."

Shia nodded thoughtfully before explaining about the dangerous energy discovered to be the berserk boy's weapon. Ukire, predictably, did not look surprised in the least. He made a slight grunting noise, still too focused on his work with this "patient" to think about another. Shia left him to his conundrum and went back to the Technology EA to check on Raifu. He was finished with his first belt and now all the technicians, numbering 8 when counting assistants, were working on their own belt. The three experts, which included Raifu, were working a lot faster. All they really had to do was create the chip, and then implant it into the pre-made belt. These belts were left-over from a former experiment of Raifu's that he had never finished. It was meant to repress nervous impulses so that pain was not felt, sort of like modern-day acupuncture. He still claimed he would get to it one day, but with him, you never knew.

Shia endured the stress of waiting in that room until the belts were all made and tested for functionality. They were then taken around the third floor and placed on the subjects. The assistants were also ordered to stop sedating the subjects.

By the time Shia and Raifu had gotten all the belts on the subjects, the initial profiles for the subjects were done and Shia was ready for the walk-around she had planned with Kerisu. She went to the Physiology EA but he wasn't there, and she instead found him with Kire in the Psychology EA. She approached them cautiously but Kire gave her an apologetic smile and she relaxed enough to ask them both to come with her on the walk-through.

"I'm going to head up to the metal balcony to check on all the subjects' initial reports," Shia explained. "Kerisu, if you could read off any abnormalities that the subjects have as we go, it would be a great help," Shia said, and Kerisu looked all too happy to explain the results of the various testing. He had apparently already read through a lot of it while waiting for her to arrive.

Kerisu already had a print-out of the Subject Profiles, so he and one of his Physiology experts, Kire and one of his Psychology experts, and Shia all headed up the metal stairwell to the third floor. Once there, Shia pressed a few buttons on the main panel by the door that led into the foyer. The walls of all the SRs currently still on the third floor changed before their eyes into a series of one-way windows that revealed the inside of the SRs. Another button had all the beds moving into vertical positions so that the subjects could be plainly viewed. It woke most of them up. Kerisu led them up to a specific SR and they could see a young boy strapped to the upright bed in the room.

The boy, the subject, was groggily opening very large black eyes, having been woken up by the movement of the bed. He was soon staring around the SR in wonder. The walls, being one-way looking windows such as those used in Police Stations for observation, prevented the boy from seeing them. All he saw in front of him was a wall. Shia observed that they had changed all of the subjects into plain white, form-fitting outfits, and that the boy had very defined muscles. The Repressor Belt hung around his waist, the red light on it signaling that it was functioning properly.

"Subject A1," Kerisu started the introduction. "His age is estimated to be from twelve to fifteen, as are all the other adolescent subjects. It has been noted that when the tranquilizer teams first tried to move him, he hadn't budged. They discovered that he was wearing ankle weights equal to around 500 pounds total. Once they were removed it was relatively easy to transport him. In the x-ray, we found his muscle mass to be largely concentrated into an average sized body. The closeness of the muscle cells alarmed my team, but it doesn't seem injurious as of yet."

"Damn," Shota, Kerisu's under-expert Physiologist that had come with them, said. His excuse for coming was that he had followed Kerisu from the Physiology EA to hear the reports, but Shia knew better. Shota and Kire, Psychology Head, were longtime friends, having known each other longer than she had known Kire. Shota ruffled his messy blond hair as he grinned. Anyone who knew him knew about his tendency to be the first to make his opinion known, even when it wasn't asked.

"Tell me about it. That doesn't sound possible," Kire said, going along with the excuse of professionalism.

Shia just frowned as she watched the slightly odd looking boy. He had glossy black hair cut into a bowl-shape. As they watched, he stopped his investigation of the room to look down at himself, and that's when he began acting strangely. She ordered the sound to come through one-way so they could hear what he was saying. Kerisu pressed a button in the wall panel and the speakers popped to life.

"The, the—" the bowl-haired boy was sniffling, "The Beautiful Green Beast of Konoha is….white!!" And then he promptly burst into rushing tears. The team looked on, wide-eyed and speechless.

"….I'm thinking of the possibilities of a diagnosis in mental instabilities," Kire said, not taking his eyes off the bawling genin. "What do you think?"

"I think it's time to call in a professional," Suki, Kire's under-expert who had followed them from the Psychology EA, answered from behind him, voice shocked. Not that anyone could blame her, especially when the boy started sobbing for a particular "Gai-sensei" repeatedly.

"We _are_ the professionals," Shia replied dryly before sighing. Suki could sometimes say things before thinking them through when she was caught off guard. It made for wonderful blond jokes, but could be a liability.

Shia looked at Kire and Suki. "Alright, I officially want a full analysis of mental stability and capabilities all around. There are 13 of them; divide them up among yourselves as you see fit." She rubbed her temples for a few seconds, one hand on her hip, before shooting a withering glare at the blond male of their group. "Shota, could you be serious for one second here?"

Shota was too busy laughing his ass off to oblige.

"Don't allow him to do this subject's exams anymore," Shia told Kerisu before dismissing everyone else. Kire and Suki left to go plan their sessions, dragging Shota away due to his inability to not add commentary throughout the overview.

"Anything else?" Shia asked Kerisu once they were alone.

"Um, well, due to the boy's apparent ability to move with over 500 pounds weighing him down, we made the restraints for all of the subjects with a test of 5000 pounds. See how those straps are metal?" he motioned to the strange boy, who was still acting wretchedly.

Shia nodded as she turned the speakers off again, glad at the silence that fell. That kid was damn annoying. "Find out how his cells can be so compact," she told Kerisu, who jotted down the note for himself. Shia and Kerisu then moved on to the next room.

"Subject A2," Kerisu supplied as she peered through the glass, "the only adult in the group. We've estimated his age to be mid-twenties, though with the mask it's difficult to tell…."

Shia frowned and said sternly, "Why wasn't it taken off?"

Kerisu gave the white-haired man an intrigued look. "Well, when we tried…there was no end to the masks. They keep coming, in different colors, but still there all the same," he said.

Shia tilted her head, giving the unconscious man a thoughtful look. "Hm….for the moment, put it down as a physical anomaly, we'll look into it later." She looked at Kerisu questioningly. "He's been unconscious since his arrival here, correct?" she asked, remembering the situation as described in the reports.

He nodded immediately. "Yes, there hasn't been any change in his brain waves to suggest his awakening," he informed her. "When we removed the headband he had covering one eye, we found that his eyes were different colors. The exposed one was a gray-blue while the hidden one was red with three tailed pupils that circled the normal pupil along a black circumference independent of the pupil."

Shia pulled her head back slightly in a sign of surprise as he showed her a picture of the described eye. It was indeed very strange looking (though slightly comical with someone holding the lids of the man's eyes open).

"Hopefully, Raifu can get that Scanner done quickly. I think it's going to tell us a lot about the subjects' various abnormalities," Kerisu said.

Shia nodded and, after making notes to examine this eye more closely, they moved on to the next window pane.

"Subject A3. This one was intensely strange in the x-ray. It revealed that he had over a thousand bugs within his body, species unknown. We have removed the bugs from his body and placed them in the next Subject Room for monitoring."

The boy, from what Shia could see, was staring blankly at what he perceived to be a wall, but was really their one-way-sight glass panels. He had surprisingly bright golden-brown eyes reminiscent of Shia's own family eyes.

"How were the bugs situated in his body?" she asked, wondering how someone could house bugs without side-effects on either side. It sounded like parasitism seen with other bugs, such as tapeworms.

Kerisu flipped a page on his clipboard. "…it seems that the largest portion of the bugs were located in the chest cavity below the heart and lungs. We found several holes in one of the boy's cheeks that we suspect to be the common exiting and entering point of the bugs. We are still studying their physiology as well as the boy's to determine how this symbiosis could be possible," he concluded, reading over the notes of various doctors and other personnel.

Shia "hm"ed thoughtfully before saying, "I want his genome mapped out. If the species of bug is unlisted, I want to know the closest relative you can find from what are known." Kerisu nodded as he jotted down the instructions.

"And lastly, he was one of the five to stay standing after the initial round of tranquilizers. It took three darts to bring him down, and he was the first of the five to fall." Shia mulled this over while they moved passed the fourth window, where the bugs were being kept in a glass enclosure, and onto the fifth SR.

"Subject A4, one of four girls. The only oddity with her is that there were many weapons hidden on her person. We had to scan her with a metal detector to make sure we got them all. Some were invisible to the naked eye." At the look Shia sent him, Kerisu quickly supplied that they had not yet figured out how this was possible.

The girl was still struggling against her metal bindings, as fruitless as the attempts were. She had brown hair and eyes, her hair having been pulled into a small bun at the base of her neck. Shia had to give her credit for perseverance, at least.

"Look into that," Shia said, referring to the ability to make weapons invisible. "I want to know how they do it. Put it down for a question in their sessions." _Maybe they'll tell us a little about them instead of making us do all the work finding out_, she silently thought as they moved on to the next viewing window.

"Subject A5, the apparent 'ring-leader' of the group based on police reports. It's also been reported that he dubbed himself 'Shikamaru' while interacting with one officer: Gene Torim of Police Unit 7. Nothing special about him in initial studies," Kerisu said, starting to sound a bit bored and put out with this particular subject.

Shia stared at the boy in the enclosed room. He had a distinctly Asian look about him, that was for sure. She gave a questioning look at his hair and glanced at Kerisu to ask about it.

"Uhm, haha," he started in amusement, "it was actually kind of funny. We tried pulling his hair down, but it seems he's had it in that style for such a long period of time that it refuses to flow the other way. We ended up having to put it back in its original state."

She silently allowed that, having seen such things happen before, though it was usually with girls who wore their hair in ponytails too often. Turning back to her scrutiny of the boy, she studied his expression. He had a barely distinguishable pout on his lips, his eyes half-lidded. Every so often they would ceiling-search before he'd sigh and grumble something she couldn't hear through the muted glass.

"What's he saying?" she asked Kerisu, knowing there were voice monitors in each room to pick up anything they might say.

"Reports from the audio room say his mumblings suggest that he wishes to at least be looking at the sky if he's going to sit still for so long." Shia smiled at that. It sounded quite familiar, rather like Ukire or Raifu in a boring situation.

"Put the audio speaker on and double-side the glass," she suddenly said, stepping up to the voice-box that reminded her of drive-through fast-food ordering.

Kerisu looked a little surprised but he quickly obeyed and opened two latches to flip the switches beneath them simultaneously. The boy in the room was soon looking at them directly, his eyes suddenly sharp.

"Hello," Shia broke the silent standoff with the boy and his full attention was then on her. She crossed her arms, as was habit, and gazed back at the boy, wondering how to approach this. "Your name is Shikamaru?" she asked, and the boy slowly nodded after hesitating. "Well, Shikamaru, we'd be interested in knowing about you and your friends."

Before she could say more, Shikamaru cut her off with a drawl of, "Where are they?"

Shia held up a hand in a pacifying gesture, sensing the undertone of urgency in his voice. "Not to worry, the group you were found with are all safe and under my care."

"You said 'we' before," he pointed out, giving her a lazy look.

_Sharp kid_. She felt a small smile wanting to tug at her lips, but held it back for appearance's sake. "Well then, I may as well tell you that you are currently under the surveillance of the American government. We want some answers pertaining to your…abilities."

The boy was eying her warily now.

"….Like what?" he asked, frowning deeply and managing to look like he was pouting again.

"Like the strange energy you can create and harness…among other things," she said, leaving it open ended. With all the new information they were taking in from this group, it wasn't easy to name or categorize everything.

Shikamaru's face fell into another lazy expression as he watched her idly. Shia waited patiently for him to answer her, and answer he eventually did.

"…It's called chakra," he finally said. "Most people where we come from have it, but here no one that we've encountered does. I'm guessing that _no one_ here does." Right on the ball with that observation.

So, "chakra" was the name of the radioactive energy made by their bodies. She saw Kerisu jotting the word down out of her peripheral vision, and Shikamaru did too, if the movement of his eyes was any indication. Before jumping on this subject of chakra, she instead asked "And where is it you come from?"

"Konoha, Fire country," the boy said blandly.

"Where is that?"

He wouldn't answer, so she filed this question away for sessions as well. "Could you explain anything else about chakra to me?" she asked, moving back to the previous topic and trying to sound kind.

She was quite satisfied that the boy was willing to comply with most of her questions. "Chakra is a combination of spiritual and physical energies, as far as the books tell it," the boy droned.

When he didn't seem to be offering any more on the subject, Shia raised an eyebrow. "Where do these energies come from?" she asked.

Shikamaru sighed. "I just said: the spirit and physical body make them. Both energies are combined through hand seals—" he paused here, as though he might have wanted to say something else, but swiftly broke off into an obviously new direction (Shia was inwardly frowning at this avoidance. What was he keeping from her?). "—then expelled from the body in the form of a jutsu."

She put her current thoughts aside for this new topic. "Techniques?" she thought back on the reports she'd read. "Have you…used these techniques since you arrived here?"

The boy was watching her critically again. "Were you there?" he asked.

"No," she answered shortly, wondering what the boy was getting at but deciding the truth was better for now.

Shikamaru remained silent for quite a while, and just when Shia was ready to move to a new topic, thinking he was refusing to answer the question, he said, "Yes."

She kept her surprise hidden. "Could you perhaps tell me them?"

"No," he replied in the same tone of voice she had used when she said "no" to his question of whether she was present or not.

Her frown was visible this time.

"…Thank you, Shikamaru. Perhaps we'll talk again." She motioned for the glass to become one-sided once again and for the speaker to be turned off.

"Wait!" Shikamaru said, and it was the loudest she'd heard him so far. It was almost a shout.

"What?" she asked over the speaker, watching him as he reciprocated the action.

His look was severe. "Where are they?"

She didn't need to ask who. "They're safe," she answered shortly, and the boy didn't protest this time as the glass became one-sided again.

She looked at Kerisu and told him to have a recording of that conversation sent to her three expert psychoanalysts (Kire, Suki, and Rina) to use in their sessions before moving to the next window.

"Subject A6. He's one of two who have no indication of an iris whatsoever," Kerisu supplied to her, shifting the papers in his clipboard.

Shia raised both eyebrows and stared at the boy who was looking around the SR in agitation. He kept squinting his eyes, or closing them and then opening them wide before trying again, and she could see that it was true—the boy's eyes were completely white.

How eerie.

"Is he blind?" she asked.

"We used a blinking light in the room to test this. He turned his head toward it whenever we turned it on, so we've conjectured that no, he is not blind," Kerisu answered.

"Alright, I want his genome mapped as well. Find out if it's a genetic mutation."

Kerisu nodded as he jotted down the note.

"Anything else?" Shia asked.

"Uh…from police reports, this was one of the five who managed to stay up after the first volley of darts. He was also the one reported to have created a dome of blue light around himself that acted as a shield. Then he threw four darts back that tranquilized two of our personnel before being the fourth of the five to fall; one tranque' took him out," Kerisu informed her. While he marveled over the boy's achievement, Shia moved closer to the glass to peer in before she turned abruptly and headed farther down the hallway.

"Next, then," she told Kerisu as he hurried to catch up. She couldn't wait to find out more about this "chakra" and what it was capable of, and by his eager look, neither could Kerisu.

They were such geeks, it wasn't even funny.

"Subject A7—" Kerisu started only to abruptly stop. Shia looked at him questioningly as he brought the papers closer to his face, as though to make sure he'd read them correctly.

"Um…this is the one who caused the most damage at the site. He stayed standing the longest of any of them, having taken 23 tranquilizers before going down. He totaled the first four police cars he came across and the last one needed new tires badly. The first car he attacked was thrown into a building, crushing the officer hiding behind it, and the third car was smashed from above, the resulting shrapnel fatally injuring another officer. He is also suspected to be the cause behind the unnatural fear at the site. Those who were able to watch say he was surrounded by a red smoke-like substance before going berserk. Some report a….um, well, we have an audio tape from one of the vans at the scene, would you like to hear it?" he asked, seeming at a loss of how to describe this particular part (obviously he didn't like the diction used, overachieving love-able bastard).

Shia nodded and after a quick talk with someone over her walkie-talkie, she was allowed to push a button to start the recording.

It started out as distant, unintelligible voices. Then abruptly there was silence in the area before a loud sound like grating sandpaper rang through the area. There were shouted commands and several awed exclamations and more of the sandpaper sounds. This hadn't lasted any longer than ten seconds when the sandpaper soothed off and stopped completely.

Then there was the sound. It was a scream so loud and rumbling that it couldn't possibly belong to a teenage boy. That sound was…of an animal; an animal in danger. She'd heard it plenty of times in her studies. It was the sound of panic, tinged with a rage that only a human could initiate.

And then the smashing and screaming started, the loud footsteps and shouts and crunches. In a small lull in the crashes there was a single bullet-shot, almost unheard in the rest of the noise, but after that the screaming lessoned considerably and the footsteps stopped sounding so frantic and erratic.

She stopped the recording there and turned to look through the glass pane.

Shia had already read the reports and now heard the recording, but she couldn't quite place the rampaging creature described in them as the same boy in front of her. He looked so _innocent._ Shia couldn't spot a thing about him that looked even vaguely threatening. He also didn't look an inch Asian; she had to wonder what the population was like where this strange group came from.

If she thought the brown-haired girl had been struggling, then this boy was having a seizure. He was pulling at his bindings so hard that he looked like he might be popping his sockets out of place. The tendons in his neck strained and his teeth were bared—she could see the elongated canines from here.

Kerisu continued with the boy's report as she moved closer to the glass to see the boy better. "Physically, he is the healthiest of the group, and the only one without scarring—besides the unusual marks on his cheeks. He is one of only two blonds in the entire group, and he's also the shortest male. There is a minor dispute over his eye color—one of the officers, the same Gene Torim from before, reports that his eyes were red. A7 was also one of the boys involved in their short internal skirmish." As Kerisu concluded this monologue, Shia debated whether to talk to the boy or not—his movements didn't look particularly healthy.

She finally decided to at least try to get him to stop attempting to free himself so vigorously, and had the speakers activated and the glass cleared. But he didn't notice the change, so wrapped up in escape attempts was he, so she cleared her throat loudly and his head snapped over to her, blue eyes widening in surprise.

"…Hey baa-chan!" She raised an eyebrow at the terrible attempt at insulting her. Her vanity was virtually non-existent. "What the hell is this?" he screamed next, his voice echoing down the hallway as he glared at her. He sounded like a temperamental child.

"This is a facility," Shia answered his question calmly, a sign of disdain or distance to anyone who knew her. Kerisu was starting to look sheepish for whatever reason.

"Who are you?" the boy demanded, looking for all the world like he was the interrogator and she the criminal. Shia's eyebrows drew together in confusion. This was certainly not what she expected.

"That is none of your concern. I am here to find out about you and the group you were found with," she informed him calmly, stuffing her hands in her white overcoat's pockets as she spoke. His eyes were too piercing.

His reaction to this was similar (though much louder) than Shikamaru's. He wanted to know where they were and she told him much of the same thing she'd told Shikamaru: that they were safe and under her care. Only he reacted differently than Shikamaru.

"And why should I trust YOU to look out for them? What is this place? Why don't you have chakra?"

He was jumping topics so quickly that she couldn't understand where the connections were, and she was not about to divulge information when it wasn't necessary, so she only told him as much as she'd told Shikamaru—that they were under surveillance of the American government. As to his question about chakra, she replied with a short "We just don't," which he didn't seem satisfied with at all, if the cursing was any indication. But she'd accomplished her goal, he wasn't struggling so violently anymore—just cussing up a storm—so she bid him farewell (which he ignored) and had the glass re-tinted and the speaker turned off.

She set off down the walkway again with Kerisu, who looked quite amused. "Not a word," she told him sternly as they came to the next room.

Kerisu just gave a stifled grin before announcing, "Subject A8, second female and other blonde. The only thing we picked up on the scanners was unusual activity in her brain. It has yet to be looked into further, on your orders," he quickly added, seeing the hard look pass through Shia's eyes at this information. But she accepted it quickly and had him plan an extensive brain-scan for the girl. This done, they once more moved on. The girl had no other extraordinary appearances.

"Subject A9, reported to be the second fighter in the internal match mentioned earlier and one of the five to stay standing after the first round of tranquilizers—he was the third of the five to fall after being hit by a stray tranquilizer."

Shia observed the boy in the room as Kerisu spoke. He had dark hair and eyes and a suspicious look about him as he eyed his surroundings, nothing like the last room's girl, who had been flickering between annoyance and boredom. It took her a while to realize that had she been his age, she might have found him attractive. He would probably be a very handsome man some day. Other than a slight blue tint to his hair and his good looks, he was like your average Japanese boy.

"Some of the officers from the site of encounter conjectured that he was using a flame-thrower, though one was never recovered," Kerisu said, giving Shia a pointed look.

Shia didn't have to think about what he was hinting at for long. "You think he was using the 'techniques' A5 mentioned, don't you?" she asked, and he nodded. "I guess we'll have to wait for Raifu's Scanner and the psychoanalysis sessions to know for sure." She planned questions to be raised in this subject's sessions and then they moved to the next room.

"Subject A10. This one, like A3, had an animal with him—a puppy, to be exact," Kerisu said, lifting a paper. "The dog, like the bugs, is being held in the adjacent SR to be monitored. It shows no extraordinary characteristics, but its owner here seems to have a very canine-influenced appearance, as you can see." She could. Shia noted the wild looking hair, fangs, claws, and slit pupils. The boy also apparently had an anger problem, as he was muttering curses and growling, gnashing his dangerous looking teeth. "The triangular marks on his cheeks are tattoos," Kerisu finished.

"I want his genome as well. Find out why he has these canine traits," she ordered effortlessly. "Oh, and keep a close eye on the dog," she added before they shifted passed the puppy's room to the one after it.

"Subject A11, third female of the group with the same white eyes as A6. She's the last of the five who remained standing after the initial volley of tranques' and the second to fall after getting hit by one. Upon scanning her, we found that she has trouble with her heart—suspected cause is internal damage of some kind, we have yet to figure out what."

Shia frowned. "How much damage is there?" she asked, eying the fearful looking girl whose eyes appeared blind.

Kerisu flipped several papers. "…the Medical team said it's a kind of internal puncture that has healed over like a scab and opens sometimes. They don't fully understand how she could have survived this without open-heart surgery. The surgery leaves signs that are not found on her body."

Shia nodded thoughtfully at this and, after throwing out a few possible ideas and reminding herself to talk with Ukire, Head Medic, about it later, they proceeded to the next window. However, there was only empty space, indicating that the room was in one of the EAs for study. It must have been the large boy being looked at by Ukire.

"You already know the problems we're having with this one," Kerisu said as they walked by the empty space, not pausing. They came to the last occupied SR. "And finally, subject A13, fourth female and…well, as you can see, with nothing extraordinary that we can find except for apparently natural pink hair."

Shia was staring. She knew it. But come on. _Pink hair?_ And it was _natural_??

That was the last straw. "Just get me all their damn genomes. I want every gene mapped, anomaly or not." With that said (read: spat), she stalked away, leaving Kerisu to jot down the note and hurriedly follow her, knowing he'd won that bet with Ukire.

She'd snapped before the end of the introduction, however close the cut was.

Kerisu made a mental note to do something nice for the blond male subject, A7. It wasn't until after him that Shia had started displaying signs of agitation.

--

6:23 pm, Day 0, Complex D7, Subject Room of A5

Shikamaru considered himself a very patient person, accounting his ability to put up with Ino's talking habits, Chouji's eating habits and Asuma-sensei's smoking habits on a daily basis. However, he had to draw the line here. He had been hanging on this semi-uncomfortable vertical bed for a while, in a room he did not recognize, without his clothes, weapons, the ability to move his hands together, and most importantly, without the sky to gaze at.

That just plain sucked.

So now he was stuck in this boring, silent room all by himself, wondering what had happened after he blacked out, where he was, where his team was, and how much trouble he would be in if he survived this. Judging by the straps that were currently holding him down tightly, he suspected that they had been captured by enemies. However, exactly how he had managed to make enemies so fast in this different world was still a mystery to him. Perhaps it was simply for being on someone's territory without permission—that was a universal excuse to attack someone. And now they probably meant to interrogate him. Shikamaru was simply waiting for someone to come and try to torture the information out of him.

He sighed and looked up at the white expanse of the ceiling for the umpteenth time. "They could have at least put a picture up," he mumbled. Even an unmoving picture of the sky would suffice right now. The waiting was maddening.

And then something new finally happened. The wall in front of him, which was plain white one moment, was suddenly translucent, and Shikamaru found himself looking at two people—a man and a woman. He waited with baited breath until the woman finally broke the stretching silence.

"Hello," she said, and Shikamaru studied her critically. She was wearing a white overcoat that reminded him of a doctor, which created a whirlwind of activity on the surface of his thoughts. If she was a doctor, then she knew enough about the body to cause extreme pain with the least prodding and poking. It also meant that she knew about the brain and how to pick it successfully. It seemed that his ideas of torture and interrogation were correct.

She crossed her arms and then asked him to confirm his name. Shikamaru paused on this strange question. Why would she care for his name? Perhaps she was trying to make him relax so she could get information out of him. Perhaps it was a psychological maneuver to manipulate him, or even just a way to ID him. In the end, he decided that if she had already heard his name, then there was no reason to deny what he'd already said once. He nodded.

"Well, Shikamaru," she said in a conversational tone, and Shikamaru was immediately on guard due to her casual use of his name. "We'd be interested in knowing about you and your friends," she finished.

His friends; his team. "Where are they?" he asked, trying to keep his voice even. He had been put in charge of the genin, and he had failed—he had let them get caught. Now it was his responsibility to free them.

The woman held up a placating hand and assured him that his team was safe. She said they were under her care. That, of course, did not add up with what she had said earlier about a "we" being interested in his and his team's abilities, and he told her as much.

Something in her face shifted after he said this, but then the muscles relaxed again. "Well then," she replied, "I may as well tell you that you are currently under the surveillance of the American government. We want some answers pertaining to your abilities."

American government? So there was a whole system behind their capture? This was not good news in the least—this meant that more people knew about their existence and capture, and that meant there would be a lot more security and people to kill to get passed that security and escape. Ah yes, escape was looking very difficult at the moment, especially with their obvious intrigue to the differences that Shikamaru and his fellow ninjas presented. Shikamaru could tell that this woman had never before encountered anyone like them.

He asked her to clarify on what abilities she meant in order to stall for time. He needed to censure what he said carefully. These people were the enemies now.

She mentioned energy of some kind and then left the question open-ended. Well, that at least told him that these people had no idea what they were up against. This would make things easier. Now he just needed to decide what they should know and what they shouldn't.

He decided to tell her the name of the energy she mentioned, chakra, since the knowledge of its existence was much more poignant than its name; it made no difference what she called it. He hoped that giving them _some_ information would make them believe that he had given them _all_ the information and then use the untold facts to outmaneuver them. With this in mind, he also told her his theory about this world not having chakra—it was obvious from what she said that it was a foreign concept, so it was better to tell the truth there. She would expect him to know it.

In response to his comment about no one "here" having chakra, she asked where he'd come from. If this was truly another dimension, as Hatake-sensei had said, then their knowing about Konoha was of little use to them. He readily gave the information, but ignored her attempt to force him to expound. He wasn't about to reveal that they were from a different world entirely.

When she asked about chakra again, he decided it was harmless to tell her about something she could not control or use. Besides, if she hadn't ever heard of it before, then the information about its technicalities would go over her head completely.

He explained to her the basics of combining spiritual and physical energies to create chakra. She wanted to know where these energies came from. That was something he didn't quite want her to know, so he only repeated himself, though he did mention hand seals on a moment of inspiration. He mentioned hand seals, yes, but he left out the fact that some people could manipulate chakra without hand seals. That may prove useful later. If he let them believe that the only way to manipulate chakra was through the use of the hands, then they might underestimate the shinobi. He then mentioned how the chakra was then turned into a technique, which he suspected her to already know if she knew of the energy.

Unfortunately for Shikamaru, he seemed to be incorrect in his assumption, for she jumped on the topic of jutsus and asked if his team had used them already. His defenses went up immediately and he was intimidated when he realized how much he had let them drop. He had been too lax before; this was serious business.

"Were you there?" Shikamaru asked, deciding that her hearing about the techniques and her seeing them were very different things. Shikamaru didn't know what had happened after he blacked out, but it was likely that those he had seen still conscious had resorted to jutsus. If any of them had used a technique without hand seals, then that could jeopardize his earlier claims. If she hadn't been there and hadn't seen…

She said she hadn't been there, and her tone was blunt enough for him to believe her. Whoever had informed her of chakra—or energy, as she had called it—would probably also be able to claim seeing some of them using hand seals. In all the chaos that had happened, it was doubtful that anyone had noticed the few techniques that did not use hand seals (if there had been any used in the first place). Shikamaru's claims to their necessity, added to the reports of actual use of hand seals, would cause this woman to believe hand seals an essential part of chakra manipulation. So he told her the truth—that yes, they had used techniques already.

She asked for elaboration, and he declined telling, purposefully using her own tone against her so that she got the message of blunt truth. He would not tell her, end of story, and that was the truth. Her expression soured.

"…Thank you, Shikamaru. Perhaps we'll talk again." And then she waved her hand at the man present, who Shikamaru had all but forgotten about, and he recognized the dismissal for what it was.

"Wait!" He said, going above his usual volume level to make sure she listened.

"What?" she asked, watching him again. His eyes never left her.

"Where are they?" he asked in as serious a tone as he could manage. He knew she would know who he meant.

"They're safe," was the only reply he got before the glass became cloudy and rapidly solidified back into a plain white wall.

Shikamaru sighed and glanced heavenward once more. "Troublesome woman," he muttered in annoyance, again and sincerely wishing for the presence of the sky. Or a good game of shogi.

He tried to find a more comfortable position within the metal straps, wishing he could move his hands into his thinking position. He somehow managed to clear his mind without the habitual position and thought over the information he had just been presented with.

A group, size unknown, was currently aware of the shinobi's presence and ability to use chakra. Unless she was lying to him. But assuming she was indeed telling the truth, then this group now believed that the only way to use chakra was through hand seals. Unless the woman had played him for a fool. The leader was most likely the woman he had just talked to. The whereabouts of his team was unknown, but considering that they had yet to torture Shikamaru, the woman's claims to their safety were probably the truth. Shikamaru mulled over this fact for a moment, wondering at their inhibitions in not using torture techniques to get information out of him. Perhaps…well, they obviously weren't shinobi, so perhaps they didn't use torture as a means of obtaining information?

Shikamaru glanced at his surroundings before deciding that this could not be true. This enclosed room was torture enough.

He went back to his contemplations and concluded that the only thing there was left to do was wait. Wait for a sign of his team, a chance to escape, another interrogation—anything that would break the monotony of this room—because only one thing was for certain.

This was a damn troublesome situation.

--

6:44 pm, Day 0, Complex D7, Subject Room of A7

Naruto considered himself a very patient person. Of course, everyone and their uncle would tell you otherwise, but in Naruto's mind, he was patient. After all, he diligently waited the three minutes for instant ramen to cook every time he made it, which was quite often. How much more patient could you get?

When Naruto had first woken up, it was to find himself strapped to a bed that was—he couldn't be sure, since his vision was still uneven—moving into an upright position. He had shifted his eyes around groggily and taken in the sterile, white room he found himself in. He could only see what was in front of the bed, so he had no idea how big the room was or what was behind him, but he was not impressed with what he could see.

It had taken him a while to sift through his sketchy memories. The biggest thing he remembered was Sasuke. Sasuke had been prepared to use the Chidori on him. Naruto's anger rose just remembering the mad look of Sasuke's Sharingan, the tomo spinning wildly. That bastard, his best friend, had been ready to kill him. Naruto's memory grew fuzzy after the memory of sharp pricks of pain all over his body and the sight of his comrades falling to the ground limply.

Naruto had thought they were dead, and the idea made his blood boil a hundred times hotter than the anger Sasuke's betrayal had brought on. There was a drowsy feeling trying to envelope his body, and as he began to sink into the farthest depths of his subconscious, an irrepressible rage had joined his own. And then the strange red chakra that Jiraiya had helped him bring out had enveloped his vision, and he remembered very little after that. Screams, frantic footfalls, loud bangs; he had smashed a "monster" at one point, and pushed another. His last memory was of terrified eyes set in a dark face, and then an intense pain in his gut that numbed into nothingness.

He had started to return to consciousness once, had heard jumpy, nervous voices and then another prick in his arm and the fuzzy white of his vision had faded back into black.

And then he had woken up here. It was then that Naruto had realized that he was a prisoner. There were no injuries on his body, and no one had come to hurt him yet, but he knew that he was no longer free due to the tight metal straps on his body.

He had patiently waited three minutes for someone to arrive, the same amount of time he devoted to his precious ramen, and had then started struggling to escape his bindings. His shoulder bone kept popping in and out of place, but the pain receded within minutes every time, so he continued his escape attempts. Unfortunately, he was getting no where fast. His mobility was severely limited with metal bindings molded to his jaw, wrists, elbows, abdomen, knees, and ankles. His arms were held out to either side of his body and his legs were spread apart from each other so that his thighs couldn't touch. The position was slightly uncomfortable, but Naruto didn't notice—he was too busy trying to free at least his hands so he could do a jutsu and find his friends.

A voice abruptly broke the silence, and Naruto looked up in surprised to see that the wall which had once been in front of him was no longer a wall—and that there was a woman and a man standing not ten feet from him.

His anger rose when he saw her expression of detachment. It reminded him of Sasuke. She only looked to be about Shizune's age, but he knew the best way to annoy women, so he made his address to her as insulting as possible.

"Hey baa-chan!" he called, and watched with annoyance as she did nothing but look even more haughty. The expression was flavored so strongly of Sasuke that he abruptly changed the subject, hoping to startle her into a different expression. "What the hell is this?" he asked, anger layering his words.

She told him it was a "facility." And she sounded infuriatingly collected, which reminded him of Sasuke again.

When Naruto asked who she was, she brushed his question off and said, "I am here to find out about you and the group you were found with."

Naruto made sure to glare extra hard at her as he asked where they were, and was completely dissatisfied with her answer.

"And why should I trust YOU to look out for them?" he asked. After all, what good was her word? She was probably the one who had tied him down in this boring room! "What is this place?" he asked next. It was just a plain white room from what he could see, but before, he had been in the midst of those huge buildings and the chakra-less people. "Why don't you have chakra?" he demanded. These people were not going to get away without giving him some answers!

At least her expression was more focused now. Sasuke never looked like that when looking at Naruto. He was instead always dismissing Naruto. But what was this crap she was spouting about a government? She barely said anything about her chakra-less state, and she didn't even bother acknowledging Naruto's first question! He was so mad about her expression and tone, that reminded him too much of Sasuke, that he simply started cursing anything he could think of. He cursed the woman and the white room, and the stupid "government" she had mentioned, and chakra in general. Then he cursed the black ground of this strange world, and then the strange world itself and everything in it. Then he cursed Kakashi-sensei for bringing them here and Shikamaru for letting them get caught, but he took that one back because then he remembered that Shikamaru had stopped Sasuke from attacking and trying to kill him. And bringing Sasuke back to mind just managed to make him even angrier and reminded him of the woman, so he looked back up to start yelling at her again. But the white wall was back and he was alone again.

He cursed the color white all the way to hell and back at least a hundred times and then finally fell silent, muttering occasionally about stupid teachers who took you to different worlds and stupid teammates who tried to kill you. Did Sasuke hate him now? Was there a reason for him to attack? Naruto tried to remember everything Sasuke had said, but the image of his blank black eyes was filling his mind too much for other thoughts. Indignation and sorrow rose at the thought of his teammate—his _best friend_—trying to kill him without hesitation. And now the bastard wasn't here for Naruto to beat some logic into. Instead of his brooding ass of a teammate, he was stuck with a clinically white room that was far too silent for his taste.

Which is why Naruto continued a muttered stream of curses. At least the room didn't feel quite so silent and lonely, then.

--

7:09 pm, Day 0, Complex D7, Psychological Experimentation Area

Kire, Head of Psychology, sighed. Shia was performing her own version of venting—which meant she was stalking around silently with a forbidding expression. Eventually she metaphorically curled herself into a secluded corner and stared at a wall, which Kire knew from years of experience to mean that she was going over information and making decisions.

Of course, the only reason he knew any of this was because Kerisu, Head of Physiology, had just finished the overview walk-around with Shia and was here to tell Kire what his next job was, and that he'd won the bet with Ukire. On top of psychoanalyzing all of the subjects, Shia also wanted him to do an extensive scan on the brain of the eighth subject and review the tapes from all of the subjects to see if they had said anything important. She claimed this was for the purpose of finding out more about them, but Kire had a suspicion that she was just asserting her agitation.

Kire had just moved to call subject A8 down when several alarming beeping noises rang faintly through the area. He jumped at the sudden sounds, turning around to find their origin. Looking above the middle office structure, he could faintly see green lights on the other side of the complex, in the Medical EA. This was a beacon for the leader, Shia, only used when she was needed immediately in an area.

His stomach churned uneasily at the foreboding sign, but as much as he wanted to go find out what had happened, he couldn't abandon his own assignment. With great reluctance, Kire turned back to the Subject Room wall and went to punch in the code for the eighth subject.

Hopefully, the Emergency Call was bringing good news about the bulky subject. Hopefully.

--

Bikenu Shia: Main Head

Mante Raifu: Head of Technology

Vinlo Kerisu: Head of Physiology; Experts: Masayo Shota

Enmaro Kire: Head of Psychology; Experts: Setano Suki

Minamo Ukire: Head Medic

Subjects/Shinobi: A1—Lee, A2—Kakashi, A3—Shino, A4—Tenten, A5—Shikamaru, A6—Neji, A7—Naruto, A8—Ino, A9—Sasuke, A10—Kiba, A11—Hinata, A12—Chouji, A13—Sakura.

AN: Alright, second chapter out. Took a little bit longer than expected, but I didn't hit the two week mark, so I feel that I accomplished something. A big thanks to all my reviewers and viewers, and anyone who bothers reading my long ANs.

Not much to say about this chapter. We only got to see Shikamaru and Naruto's reactions. Don't worry; I'll get to the others as we go along. I don't want to jump from ninja to ninja unless they have another purpose within the chapter. The hardest things to write in this chapter was that last tiny little bit with Kire and Naruto's POV—yeah, he was really difficult. I tried to catch his unpredictability and randomness, as well as his rashness. And for Shikamaru, I tried to mix lazy and sharp—which is rather oxymoronic. Troublesome lazy geniuses.

Even I have trouble remembering who's who when it comes to the ninja's Subject names (A#), so I'll put them under the revealed OCs at the end of each chapter.

Questions for this chapter:

1. Is it clear who each subject is?

2. Were Shikamaru and Naruto in character?

3. Do you think I missed any unusual attributes about anyone?

4. Any theories on how I may explain some things?

Thanks for reading, and I hope to see you next chapter, when we finally find out exactly what's wrong with Chouji, and perhaps encounter problems with another ninja or two. Until then.

-Itallia


	4. Scratching the Surface

Disclaimer: Don't own Naruto, but this fanfic and the ideas and original characters within it are mine.

Summary: We've all seen the stories where someone is transported to the Naruto world, so what if things are switched. How is our world going to handle Naruto? Non-crack

Note: This start of this story is set pre-Sasuke betrayal, post-Godaime. It's about the time that Sasuke is released from the hospital, but before Sound gets him.

--

Humane Studies

Chapter 3: Scratching the Surface

6:52 pm, Day 0, America, Area 51, Complex D7, Subject Room of A8

Ino was quite annoyed with the turn of events up to this point in time. First her Sasuke-kun's perverted teacher (or at least that's what Sakura always called him) had taken them to a strange world in the middle of an examination because someone had attacked them. Ino didn't remember the details very clearly, but she did remember black cloaks with red puffs that resembled simple clouds, the kind she used to draw in pictures as a child. Oh, and she remembered the man standing just within the forest edge. His blond hair was _gorgeous._

After the unexpected shift in worlds, that lazy bum Shikamaru had been allowed to order them all around just because he was a chunin. Ino still couldn't fathom why _he_, of all people, had been promoted. Surely her Sasuke-kun had deserved the title much more! After all, he had battled that crazy sand-nin who had absolutely _destroyed_ that eyebrow-kid in the prelims. If anyone had the guts to go up against such a freaky opponent, then they definitely earned the title of chunin in her opinion! Those old bats on the council didn't know a thing. Yeah, that was it.

Anyway, back to her mental rant. After that they had been cornered by the color-flashing, roaring monsters that had eaten people (and Ino didn't care what that prick Neji said; those things were monsters whether they were alive or not!). Sasuke-kun had…Ino pushed the thoughts of what Sasuke had done and said to Naruto out of her mind, ignoring them. He had just been scared, that was it. If only he wasn't so brave, he could have come to her and allowed her to comfort him properly! But one day he would admit his undying affection for her and she could cuddle him all she wanted. Take that, forehead girl!

Ahem, moving on. The group had threatened them with more monsters and people with fast boomerang-like weapons (though they didn't need to throw them), and the next thing Ino remembered was waking up in an uncomfortably vertical position, a bed at her back and metal straps holding her against it. A blank white wall was in front of her, and nothing had changed since then.

Oh, and they had taken her clothes! She was in this white body suit which, she admitted, wasn't that bad, but probably didn't go well with her hair at all. She was too light skinned to pull off light clothes well. Maybe if she got a tan like that moron, Naruto…if there was one thing she grudgingly envied about the brat, it was his skin tone. He made it look so easy to get a perfect golden tan.

But at least with pale skin, she and Sasuke's future babies would all be beautiful and ivory-skinned. The boys would look just like their father, and the girls would take after her grandmother, who had the loveliest shade of blonde hair Ino had ever seen. Ino didn't like her own hair color—it was much too close to white to appreciate. Ino's eyes were also pale blue, whereas her grandmother's had been a deeper, truer blue, like the twilight sky.

Ino was so lost in her thoughts of mini-Sasukes running around a perfect house and an adult Sasuke coming home to tell her that he loved her every day (even though he was busy as an ANBU commander) that she didn't at first notice the way the whole room felt as though it was suddenly shifting along a track very steadily. She also failed to notice that shortly after the movement had stopped, the right side of the wall in front of her opened quietly. She did, however, hear the click of the door closing, and she glanced over to see a tall man with curly brown hair and a white lab coat watching her curiously. She glanced briefly at the box under his arm, long enough to note that it didn't appear to be a weapon, and then locked eyes with him again.

Ah, her chance to escape! She quickly focused on her family's renowned mind-transfer, and then tried to mold chakra to perform it.

Nothing happened. She couldn't even feel the chakra moving through her coils. It was as if she was…empty. She tried again, thin brows furrowing in irritation, but again, nothing happened.

The man was watching her with a slightly sheepish smile now.

"Hello," he said, and Ino was somewhat relieved that this man spoke her native language instead of the babble that the boomerang people spouted. "How are you feeling?" he asked as he moved behind her.

"I'd feel a lot better if I knew where the hell I was," she replied snidely, straining against her bindings to bring the man back into her line of vision.

A chuckle sounded behind her, making her blood boil with indignation. He was laughing at her!

"You're safely under government watch for the moment, so don't fret," the brunet man said as he came back to stand in front of her, holding a weird helmet looking thing with tons of wires coming out the top.

Ino looked at the device warily. "What's that?" she asked, trying (and failing) to skitter backwards when he adjusted her head restraints and placed it snugly on her head.

"Just relax, I'm running some tests on your health," the man answered. _Health?_ Ino thought as the tall man disappeared from sight again. _He must be a doctor._ Well, great. Maybe he would kill her quickly since he knew all the fatal points in the body.

But, wait. If he was testing her health…well, hell, what did that mean? That he wasn't there to harm her? If he wasn't an enemy then he shouldn't be keeping her locked up. Maybe they were a neutral party? And then Ino suddenly remembered that this wasn't even the same world, and that these people didn't have chakra (according to the freaky eyed Hyuuga boy and equally weird bug boy). What did that change?

_It doesn't change anything,_ Ino thought agitatedly. _I'm a ninja! I have to escape from here and then find Sasuke-kun!_

And so with that resolution firmly in mind, the girl again focused on performing her family's mind switch technique once the man came back. But to her disappointment and worry, she once again couldn't feel a thing moving within her. Maybe it was because she couldn't use her special hand seal to mold the chakra? Yeah, yeah, that must be it. Well, hand seals were only a physical way to help move chakra. She had heard about people who could mold it without seals, and she remembered what her father had told her (half in jest) years ago: "_A Yamanaka can do anything if they put their mind to it._" So she continued trying to perform the mind-switch, doubling her efforts when the man came around in front of her.

She had been trying and failing to do this for several minutes before the man moved away and then came back and took the helmet off her, a strange wide-eyed yet scrunched expression on his face. Ino was starting to get a headache, which naturally made her more irritable.

"What did you do to me?" Ino asked, automatically looking for someone else to blame for her lack of ability.

"Just a test on your brain," he answered vaguely as he again walked behind her bed.

Ino froze. He was testing her brain? Ahah, he was trying to steal her family's secret, find out how the Yamanaka clan could do the mind swap! So he was an enemy ninja!

"You'll have to kill me first!" Ino said valiantly, feeling very proud of her bravery in the face of torture. Of course, if she had been in the face of real shinobi torture practices, she probably wouldn't have had so much spunk, but the pretty young blonde was oblivious to this fact.

The man had been heading to the invisible door, once again holding the box, when she said this. He paused after he opened it, leaning back around the door to give her a confused look. "Why in the world would I do that?" he asked.

Now they were both staring at each other in confusion. When the man received no answer, he smiled hesitantly. "It was nice to meet you," he said pleasantly, and then left Ino alone again.

Ino was suddenly reminded of what had happened after her father, Inoichi, had said "_A Yamanaka can do anything if they put their mind to it._"

Shikamaru's heavily scarred father had laughed boomingly and asked "_What mind? You all los__e your minds every day!"_

Ino screeched in frustration. _I haven't lost my mind, dammit!_

As if in opposition to her thought, a strange feeling of movement fell on her, as though she were being carried on a very steady cart.

Ino gulped nervously, glancing around for the source of the movement and finding nothing.

_Okay,_ she conceded to herself, _maybe just a little._

--

7:10 pm, Day 0, Complex D7, on the way to the Medical Experimentation Area

Shia, the main leader of the youngest scientific group in Japan, was not having a good day. It had gone downhill since the annoyance of that blond male subject, and seemed to be getting progressively worse. There was too much information and thought building in her head; she needed time to sit down and process everything. But noooo. Just when she'd found a nice empty break room and a comfy couch, that damn Call had turned on.

As she silently stormed toward the green light, originating in the Medical Experimentation Area (EA), one clear thought passed through the tumult in her head. _This had better be good._

When she arrived, the Main Medic Ukire promptly caught her attention and turned the Call off. She joined him on the outside of the single Subject Room (SR), where the body of subject A12 continued depleting. Ukire was standing in front of a computer that was built into the wall above the control panel, yellow sunglasses hiding his eyes.

"I finally figured out what's wrong," he told her without preamble, voice rushed as he began bringing schematics up on the touch screen. A scanned image of the outline of the male subject's body came onto the screen. "Before we did initial scans of the boy's body, we cleaned out his system so that there wouldn't be any interference. The scans then revealed that his fat stores were rapidly disappearing—" The outline of the body on the screen filled with simple visuals of organs and systems within the body, then showed the pink-colored lipids quickly disappearing. "—the question was: how? More in depth scans of the cells themselves and the changes happening in the body over time revealed that the deterioration is the same kind as seen when a person is working off fat through exercise. The fat molecules were being broken down and sent throughout the body, and we've found trace amounts in every cell." A molecule appeared on the screen and then broke apart into individual atoms. Green lighted pathways began circulating throughout the body.

"Unfortunately," Ukire continued, "we lose track of the molecules here. Instead of being used in the process of cellular respiration to make ATP, as they normally would, they basically…disappear. The farthest we can track them with the scanners is into the mitochondria; from there, I have no idea what happens to them." The green pathways in the body on the screen slowly faded into nothing. "If I knew why this was happening, I could stop it," Ukire muttered resignedly. "At this rate, whatever process is occurring will continue to deplete his fat reserves and then move on to other body tissue in a few short hours."

Shia watched and listened to all of this, and then pulled a pad of post-its and a mechanical pencil out of her breast pocket, mind racing with solutions to this puzzle. She wrote down several key words, which Ukire looked over her shoulder to see: ATP was connected to Energy, which had small print under it saying "chakra." Ukire's raised his eyebrows at the unfamiliar word, but he watched as she wrote the word Process and then made a connecting line between Process and Chakra with the words "to make."

"Process to make Chakra"? This, of course, made absolutely no sense to him, so Ukire simply waited while Shia stared at the paper in thought.

Shortly after, her eyes snapped onto him and she began speaking quickly—quickly for her, which, unfortunately for Ukire, was practically babble, as her normal speech was rather speedy. "I talked with one of the subjects and he said that the energy the berserk boy displayed was called 'chakra.'" As he worked out what she had said, the twisted puzzle began to slowly unwind in Ukire's mind, and the light of comprehension showed through the slow relaxing of his facial muscles. Shia's, however, stayed hard. "If the fat is breaking down and going through all the same processes of cellular respiration until it hits the mitochondria, where it then disappears from our scanners, then the only explanation I can come up with is that the fat is being made into this 'chakra' instead of ATP. Now the only question is why is it only happening to this subject and not any of the others?" Shia stared off into space as she tried to come up with the answer to this confusing question. "Perhaps we were wrong to assume…" she trailed off.

Ukire paused to take this all in, turning to look through the glass into the SR to see the boy whose body was basically performing miracles never recorded in history. This boy, unlike the rest of the subjects, was resting horizontally on the bed with doctors and nurses bustling about him. The fat on his face was mostly gone, revealing a smooth, strong jaw and high cheekbones. Twin swirling tattoos marked his cheeks and his hair stood wild atop his head. His expression was subtly pinched with pain and his fists clenched and unclenched spasmodically. Damn it, if only they had more information.

A research assistant came bustling up at that moment. "Minamo-sama," she addressed Ukire formally. Most of the assistants were not part of their original group, and so did not know the experts as personally as they knew each other. However, Shia was careful in who she picked to trust, so the necessary extra aids were never adverse to keeping quiet when it came to the government they supposedly answered to. "Kamara-sama would like a word; he says there's something you need to see."

Ukire and Shia exchanged glances before quickly following the woman away from the SR and over to a lab table where Kamara Jiru, one of the expert medics under Ukire, was waiting. He pointed at the microscope he was looking through and spoke gravely while they examined its contents. Normally he was of a kind and joking disposition, but he when to be serious.

"Ukire-sama, you told me to examine the contents of the boy's stomach for any kind of abnormalities. What I did find were trace amounts of RBP4," he said.

Ukire looked confused at this news. Shia glanced up from her examination of the microscopic contents on the slide. "Retinol Binding Protein 4? Isn't that the counteraction to…?"

Ukire nodded quickly, long hair trailing the movements of his head. "Insulin: the protein that stimulates the synthesis of fat. But trace amounts shouldn't be doing anything…Jiru-san, what else did you find?"

He shrugged. "The stomach itself was mostly empty; all I found was the Retinol 4 and a few mostly digested food particles. The small intestine was also mostly empty, and there was very, very little fecal matter. Based on this, I'd say the boy hasn't eaten in a while—perhaps a day or longer."

"It's completely possible," Shia spoke up, "considering that we have no idea where they're from, how long they've been _here_, or what they've been doing—aside from running around the streets of San Fran. Do we know what the conditions of the other subjects are?"

"With respect to food?" Ukire asked as he started going through the database on a nearby computer. "Well, Kerisu's scans are showing average eating habits in all of the others—sort of. A7 isn't eating quite as much starch as he could. But all the same, the other subjects are still receiving dietary supplement."

Shia frowned as she gazed at the SR several dozen feet away. Why would this subject be different from the rest? Perhaps food supplies were limited as of late, and the bulky boy had been deemed the least needy? It was a strange, but logical, conclusion. Shia mentally marked it as a possibility and had just started moving on to others when the third and last Medical expert, Derubi Akane, came over.

"Hey guys," Akane greeted them with a wink. He was a joker at heart. "I found something odd in several different cells of the boy's body; here, take a look." He slipped a slide under an empty microscope and adjusted the lens before moving out of the way for Ukire to see.

"…more RBP4?"

Akane nodded. "And it's affecting the cells strongly," he confirmed. "I've found large amounts in every cell in the body; blood tests confirm that this kid's had more than enough for two fully-grown men." He grinned. "Talk about fast weight loss."

"Does he have type 2 diabetes?" Jiru asked, but Ukire shot this idea down almost immediately.

"We found traces of the protein in his stomach—that means he ingested RBP4 on his own. In other words…"

"…Steroids?" Akane finished. He glanced at the SR window then back to his co-workers, noting their grave expressions and dropping his smile briefly. "Why would the kid take steroids?"

Shia merely shook her head wearily and sat on a spare stool, crossing her arms on the table to pillow her head.

Ukire looked up from the microscope to Jiru and Akane. "Go pump some insulin into the kid—we'll try to cancel the effects. Still," he continued to Shia as his two under-experts left, "I don't understand how RBP4—no matter how high the levels—could be affecting anyone this badly. It's as if he's slowly melting."

Shia shrugged her shoulders awkwardly, not raising her head. "If the purpose of the Retinol 4 protein is to make chakra, then we can't say for sure exactly what is going to happen. We don't—"

An alarming beeping noise went off from inside the SR. Shia and Ukire whipped around to see the life support systems going haywire from inside the room—the heart monitor was jumping around erratically and medics were darting around it, trying to figure out what was wrong. The two quickly joined in the mayhem, pushing their way through the door and to the bed with the boy atop it. The subject was shaking and twitching randomly, fists and teeth clenched. He was still tied down, so most of his movements were prohibited, but anyone could see that he was in pain. His now visible muscles were straining against the metal bindings and broken whimpers escaped his chapped lips.

"_What_ is going _on_?" Shia hissed angrily.

A nurse she barely knew answered from her left. "His body is under attack somehow—the cells are being destroyed rapidly."

Shia turned an accusing glare on Ukire. "I thought you said it would be hours before the deterioration moved to his body tissue?"

"I don't think it's the Retinol 4 that's doing this," he answered back, glancing over the readings that were handed to him on a clipboard. "The cells aren't being broken down for use, they're simply dying."

Shia looked frantically down at the convulsing boy. "Isn't there anything you can do??" she demanded.

"I don't know what to do!" Ukire said, angry and exasperated and confused.

Shia made up her mind in an instant and then was racing out of the room and up the closest metal stairwell, dodging around startled personnel without touching them. This was her last resort, her only option.

--

7:17 pm, Day 0, Complex D7, Subject Room of A5

Shikamaru was secretly amazed at the efficiency of this team, or whoever had subdued them. Not only had they managed to successfully capture and contain 13 qualified (highly or otherwise) ninja, for he entertained no thoughts that someone might have escaped, but they had also found a way to affect said ninjas' chakra.

Shikamaru had been lazily going over the details of the interaction with that troublesome woman when he had decided to do a mental check on his current chakra capacity. If he could somehow manipulate the small bits of outgoing chakra from his body without hand seals, then maybe he could get his hands free and then get serious. So he delved down into the depths of what some referred to as the "Abyss," so named because it was just that—an indefinitely deep container where chakra was stored, and that measured chakra capacity. It was only indefinite in the sense that it could get larger if one worked on their capacity through exercises, ways to increase physical and/or spiritual energy and therefore increase the amount of chakra one could make and contain. But as Shikamaru mentally prodded at this container to see how full it was and if he could process some chakra out to circulate through his coils, he realized that the chakra was sitting unnaturally dormant and docile. Usually, the chakra roiled and curled within the abyss, but right now…it was as still as water in a glass. It almost seemed to be weighed down, suppressed by an outside force.

Shikamaru puzzled over this for some time, but could find no explanation for the strange behavior of his chakra except that the people who had captured them had done…something to him. He didn't just **not know**—he couldn't figure it out at all, and it was annoying.

The wall in front of him suddenly started to clear, and he could only vaguely see the woman from earlier on the other side before she shouted, "Shikamaru!" Once the milky white had fully cleared, Shikamaru took in the woman's bedraggled appearance with confusion. She looked as though she'd just taken a run around Konoha. "There's something wrong," she gasped, "with one of your friends—the overweight one."

Shikamaru's eyes widened and an involuntary name came to his lips. "Chouji!?"

"He took a drug of some kind—it's making his body fat break down—and now his body is starting to be destroyed," she said. "Do you know what's wrong with him?"

Shikamaru's mind jumped rapidly from topic to idea to theory. If his best friend was in danger, he was going to make sure he survived. Chouji's body fat was depleting because of a drug—it could only be one of his family pills. The ingredients and reactions were top secret, so Shikamaru only knew a little about them, his father being best friends with the head of the Akimichi clan and he being best friends with the heir. What he did know was that there were several different kinds, even aside from the main three. The only problem was that most were fast acting, near instantaneous, and Shikamaru didn't think they were allowing Chouji any more leeway than they were giving him. There was no way he could have taken the pills recently; it must have been earlier, before they were caught. So then why were the bad effects of the pill affecting Chouji now?

Brushing this aside for the moment, he concentrated on what he could do to save his friend. Akimichi pills didn't destroy the body unless there wasn't enough fat for the reaction to time out, and Shikamaru knew that Chouji had the necessary fat—Akimichis weighed themselves every day to make sure they had enough bulk to use their pills if the occasion ever called for it. So why were the pills causing his body to deteriorate…? He couldn't have taken them all, could he?

….Wait…An idea suddenly struck Shikamaru. "Are you suppressing his chakra like you're doing to mine?"

It was the only thing that made sense—these people somehow knew how to suppress chakra. That was the reason his chakra was so still, and if the same thing was happening to Chouji while he took the pills, which increased his chakra output exponentially…

The woman nodded, confirming his beliefs.

"You have to release his chakra or it'll kill him," Shikamaru informed her. When she didn't move his annoyance rose. "What's wrong?" he demanded. Chouji might be dying and she was just standing there! Troublesome doctor…

"If I save your friend…will you cooperate with my questioning?" she asked slowly, gazing slightly sideways at him.

An internal battle ripped at Shikamaru's insides. On the one hand, his best friend and comrade was possibly looking death in the eyes, and Shikamaru could save him with the knowledge he had. On the other hand, that knowledge was possibly valuable to their escape as a group. So the question was who was he willing to sacrifice: the individual or the group?

It was no question at all.

"Yes."

The glass turned milky again. "Thank you," was all he heard before the wall solidified and the room was eerily silent again. Shikamaru waited for several long minutes, straining to hear anything that might indicate Chouji's safety, perhaps hoping for the woman to come back and tell him that his friend was out of danger.

And suddenly the room shook ever so subtly, but it was enough. Shikamaru breathed a sigh of relief. Chouji would be okay. If anyone was in the same room with him, however…

Shikamaru put it from his mind. The odds of another team member being kept with Chouji were infinitesimal; they wouldn't want to risk cooperative escape. But now that he was thinking of his team, he thought of how he had just betrayed them, and guilt started to eat at him. However…if the knowledge of chakra would help keep his teammates safe from themselves, then he was willing to hand it over. These people, whoever they were, had not yet tried to harm him. They had only suppressed his chakra and bound him, which was understandable. As he had thought and said already, he and the other shinobi were the outsiders, the strange beings in the wrong world.

And of course, he was a ninja. He knew how to be deceitful with information he didn't want others to know.

--

7:23 pm, Day 0, Complex D7, Medical Experimentation Area

Shia ran back into the SR of—Chouji, was it?—with the knowledge of how to save him and the promise of more information from Shikamaru. She had taken the chance to obtain a sworn oath, even if she didn't know how reliable it was. But she'd think about it later; for now…

"Clear the room!" she shouted, and ignored the shocked looks she received as she started throwing people out bodily. "I said, clear the room," she yelled again, and this time the medics obeyed, jumping out the door to obey (read: to escape the wrath of her throwing arm).

When Ukire, Head Medic, passed her, Shia stopped him briefly. "You have mechanical arms in this room, don't you?" As he nodded, she let her breath out quietly in relief and followed him out of the room before sealing the door closed.

"Shia, what are you doing?" Ukire asked as Shia started fiddling with the mechanical arm to get the hang of it.

She moved the arm down to hover over the belt. "Saving a life," she claimed, and then pressed the last few buttons to remove the belt.

What happened next was unlike anything she had ever seen, save on one other occasion. The first Atom Splitter built by Shia and her team had been large and enclosed in glass. When it had been activated, energy had burst into flowing pathways and ribbons within the glass enclosure. This was the exact same thing that happened. Blue tendrils of energy, of chakra, began rising and whipping around the unconscious boy, exploding outward from him like a bomb. Shia actually felt the physical aftershock in a short earthquake. The sound and most of the explosion were kept solely within the SR, as the walls were strongly reinforced. But Shia could see the dark marks appearing on the walls, long scores that began painting the blue-filled room black. The machines that hadn't been attached to the walls were blown back and medical utensils embedded themselves in the walls like knives.

This lasted for not two seconds before the release of energy ceased and the blue disappeared just as quickly as it had come. Shia and all the medics present stared at the ruined mess in the room, adrenaline pumping through their hearts. One nurse actually collapsed from the shock.

The tense silence that filled the entire complex—for the other EAs could easily feel that shock-wave—was broken when slow footsteps resounded from Shia's shoes. She moved to look through the bombarded glass and then pulled a walkie-talkie from her pocket, setting it to frequency 4.

"Raifu, did you make any extra belts?"

When the response came, it was in a knowing tone. "I made five."

"Good," Shia replied, "'cause we're gonna need them."

--

8:33 pm, Day 0, Complex D7, Bikenu Shia's office

"…We've moved subject A12 into a new SR and are now keeping him unconscious without the belt until the RBP4 has been properly countered by the insulin injections. After the counter effect is successful, we'll hook up a feeding tube and check that his body is functioning properly."

It was the end of this very long and tiring day and the Heads were all in Shia's office in the center of the complex, currently engaged in a routine end-of-the-day meeting. Ukire was just finishing summing up his actions for the day, which amounted to explaining what the shock-wave was to the other Heads.

"Have the clothes he was found in searched for any items that may give us a hint to what kind of steroids he used, exactly," Shia ordered after Ukire was done. "If you find any more, break them down for composition and record it in his profile. Once the effects of the steroid have been properly nullified, continue watching him for 24 hours before sending his SR back with the others. Also, allow him to wake up while observing him to be certain that his systems do not change with his state of consciousness."

Ukire nodded. "That is all," he said before sitting down.

Before moving on to the next Head, Shia said, "I might add that I find it disconcerting that the subject's own chakra was able to injure him so drastically. We're still not sure exactly what happened, but I will be talking to Shi—subject A5 about it." Her slip was almost unnoticeable. Almost.

When she saw no answer would be given her, Shia turned to Raifu. "Technology," she addressed him by the subject he oversaw, "how is the new machine coming, the one that will judge chakra levels and what atoms are being split?"

"Oh, the Chakra Reader?"

"How original," she commented sarcastically, but he ignored it.

"Ah, it should be done by sometime tomorrow or the next day; it's not as if I have anything else to do around here."

"Don't worry; I'll make sure you never have time to get bored." His face fell a little at that. "After it's done, I want you to scan samples from the old SR of A12 and compare them to the scans of A7's energy."

"Wondering why one of the energies was red and the other blue?" Raifu asked through a suppressed smirk.

Shia smiled slightly as answer and then looked to Kire next. "Psychology, have you finished the cerebral scan of subject A8?"

"Yes," he said, leaning over to fish something out of his bag. He pulled out several pieces of paper and passed them around the table. They were copies of the scans of the female subject's brain.

"As you can see," Kire began, holding up his paper to point at, "there are some differences in the structure of her brain. This blue compartment right here, next to the cerebellum, is a completely new structure in comparison with the normal human brain. As far as I can tell, it is inactive at this time."

Shia raised an eyebrow at this but allowed him to continue without interruption.

"The nerves in this area connect directly to the spinal cord and also network through the brain, almost as if it were a smaller nervous system independent of the CNS (central nervous system)." Kire looked around at the faces of his colleagues for a moment. "I don't know what this compartment is for, but it has access to every part of the body."

Shia tilted her head thoughtfully. "This scan…it allows you to see masses through other ones, correct?"

At Kire's affirmative answer, she continued almost off-handedly. "This new compartment looks like it's fairly well hidden by the spinal cord and cerebellum. The first scans you did aren't as detailed as this one, right?"

Kerisu, Head of Physiology, was staring at her. "Do you think it's possible that the others may have the same thing?" he asked curiously before addressing Kire. "Is it likely? I thought you did a more in depth analysis of this subject's brain because it showed up weird in the first scans."

Kire was suddenly nodding in earnest. "Yes, actually—what I just showed you was not what our first scans picked up. What the first machines picked up, and what the last detailed, was the pattern and frequency of brain waves. The subject had…well, very strange results. In case anyone's forgotten," his eyes flickered to Raifu, who yawned disrespectfully, "there are four main patterns of brainwaves. Listed from most active to least, they are beta, theta, alpha, and delta. At any given time, there is one dominant brainwave frequency and only trace amounts of others. However, in this girl…she exhibits virtually equal amounts of alpha, beta, and theta at the same time."

Shia and Kerisu glanced at each other. "What about delta?" Kerisu asked.

"Delta is always on its own," Kire told them. "Don't let me confuse you: the first three can still be found alone, like in the normal brain, but they also mix sometimes. I haven't found any reason or rhyme for why they do, though," he admitted.

There was a moment of silence as they all thought of possibilities, but no one had anything to conjecture as of yet, so they moved on. Shia asked about the psychoanalysis sessions Kire was planning with his team.

"Well, there's a slight problem with those, actually," he said. "If we're giving them 'therapy' sessions, they need to feel comfortable and secure, not tied down and imprisoned. I would need to have them in the usual psychiatrist rooms in order to do the sessions with proper results."

"We don't know how dangerous the subjects are yet; we can't risk the safety of your team or the chance that they might escape," Shia said.

"I know," Kire answered. "That's the problem. Until we can trust them in an unsecured environment, I can't do much."

Shia sighed and waved this matter off as well. For the moment, there was nothing she could do about it. "Just finish planning who will question who," she told Kire. "Maybe go around and talk to them a little while they're in their rooms to get a feel for their personalities."

"I might try that," Kire said, writing a note down for himself. He chuckled slightly. "I already know that A8 isn't very happy with me."

Shia ignored this comment and asked Kerisu if he had found anything noteworthy in the full body cat scans and the physical tests his group had done.

Kerisu shifted forward and grabbed his clipboard, which had a large packet of papers clasped within it. The others made themselves more comfortable and settled in for the long haul. With the attention given to A12 in the Medical EA, most of the physical work had fallen on Physiology, and Kerisu wasn't known for short stints.

"Alright," Kerisu began, "I'll start with A1, the one with high muscle density and the ability to lift over a 500 pounds with ease. On the subject of his compacted muscle cells, I can say that I think I may have found the reason. I checked the clothes he was originally found in, and tried to stretch them. Would you believe me if I said they were unmovable? I couldn't stretch them an inch—it was as if they were fitted to his body shape only. When I scanned them with our radioactive scanner in the Tech EA, I found that they were basically infused with heavy particles—chakra."

A few "hm"s went around the room, but they allowed Kerisu to continue.

"Since we don't have the, uh, 'Chakra Reader' yet, I can't get a full scan of the particles. Anyway, I think the suit is what is forcing his cells to compact so much, and that the chakra in the suit is what is keeping it so stiff."

Shia allowed this theory and asked him to continue.

"I also looked at the cells individually under a microscope. You guys remember fast and slow twitch muscles, right?"

At Kire's sheepish expression and Raifu's smile, he explained. "The fibers that make up muscles are divided into two main categories: fast and slow twitch fibers. Fast contracts quicker than slow, but lasts for a shorter duration. Usually, people with a greater amount of slow twitch fibers have more stamina while fast twitch is better for short bursts of energy and then rest."

Kire nodded. Raifu didn't really do anything.

"Well," Kerisu went on, not expecting a reaction from Raifu, "The muscle cells of this boy have both characteristics, meaning, in essence, that he has the speed of a sprinter and the endurance of a long-distance runner."

Shia's eyebrows drew together. "That's strange," she noted. "Can this happen from training or is it simply genetic?"

Kerisu sighed. "Well, as we won't have the results of the genomes for another few days, I can't say for sure. Some research suggests that muscle type can be forced to change through training, but it's still under testing. Personally, I think it is possible, but for him to get this level of power, the boy would've had to force his body to function over long periods of time while under immense stress, and that would involve an exceptional amount of training."

"We'll wait for the genome results to decide, then," Shia replied. "Kire, try asking him in his sessions about any kind of training he may have done in the past. Ask about his family, too; that may give us a hint as to whether it's genetic or not."

Kire wrote this note down as well.

"Kerisu, do the subject's cells use aerobic or anaerobic respiration?" Shia asked.

"Both; in that way, they are like fast twitch type A."

"I see." She paused. "You may continue."

"On to A2, then: the adult. I checked some samples from his unusual eye, the red one, and found that their composition is somewhat different than normal eyes. Because of the way the cones and rods of the eye are set up, it reacts to changes in light and dark near instantaneously instead of the 20 minutes or so it takes for normal eyes. This eye is basically a very advanced form of the human eye: better depth perception, longer viewing range, sharper images. I also scanned the cells, and some of the masks in the radioactive scanner, and found chakra present in them. His more 'normal' eye does not show anything in the scanner, so I can guess that there is no chakra present in it. Further analysis of this is pending the creation of the Chakra Reader. And finally, we found his muscle cell composition to be much the same as A1s, but they weren't so compound. In comparison with athletes of today, he is much like a light weight wrestler or boxer—perhaps a runner as well. Oh, and he's still unconscious."

Shia was glad that Kerisu was bending more toward summary now and hoped he would continue in such a fashion with the rest of his report. "Ukire," she said, "check his state of health to make sure that this prolonged state of unconsciousness is normal."

Ukire nodded.

"A3, the bug boy," Kerisu went on. "We found several compartments in his body that we think are specifically meant for housing the bugs that were found in him. The strange thing is we can't find any evidence of a food source for them. They are not connected to the stomach in any way, and so cannot be getting nourishment that way, and there is no proof of their eating his body at all. I don't understand it."

Ukire tilted his head. "Could it be that they leave his body to feed and he simply houses them?" he threw out.

"It's a plausible idea," Shia said. "Did you check the bug's bodies?" she asked Kerisu.

"Yes," he answered, a strange look on his face, "and we couldn't find a trace of food in them. More surprisingly, the digestive system was highly unusual for the beetle-like bugs that they are (we still haven't identified the species). They have no outlet for wastes, only a stomach, and its walls are very porous. I don't know what to make of it."

"Keep watching him, then, and Kire: make sure to ask him about the bugs," Shia ordered.

Kire sighed and wrote down the third note.

"Okay, that's all for A3 at the moment," Kerisu started again. "A4, the girl with invisible metal weapons on her, has proven to be basically normal so far. The only thing is that the weapons, which, incidentally, are still invisible," he ignored the shocked looks and raised eyebrows, "show up in the radioactive scanners."

"More chakra influence, huh?" Shia asked, pausing for a moment to think. "So far, chakra seems able to mold physical things, become a physical presence, make things invisible, affect eyes, and cause…what, infinitely multiplying masks?" Her tone was exasperated by the end.

Kerisu smiled sheepishly. "Just wait 'til I'm done," he said, and Shia didn't like the sound of it. "A5, identified as Shikamaru, has no differences as far as I can tell."

Shia didn't know why she was somewhat disappointed to hear this.

"A6's white eyes showed up much the same as the adult's red eye under a microscope and under the scanner. And A7…" Kerisu glanced at Shia and saw her face tighten slightly. "I still can't figure out how he can apparently heal from a bullet wound in less than an hour—we couldn't find any traces of the bullet or a wound, and yet there was blood and an entry hole in his jacket and shirt. I'm hoping his genome will tell us more about him."

Kerisu waited for Shia to say something, and when she didn't, he went on. "A8 has been under Kire's watch. A9—" his eyes darted up to Shia's and away again, and he coughed uncomfortably, "—there was a mark on his shoulder that I neglected to mention during the walk-around, and it has proven to be a little more important that it first appeared."

At Shia's murderous look he quickly said, "I didn't think it was anything more than a tattoo, it seemed pointless to mention it! Anyway, upon closer inspection we found it wasn't a tattoo at all—it was a kind of breeding ground for an unidentified enzyme. The only thing I can predict from the make-up of the enzyme is that it is an enhancer."

Shia's face darkened. "An enhancer, as in a steroid?"

"Possibly; I can't say for sure yet. I'll have to study it more, perhaps allow it to infect something else to see its effects. I have Shota-kun and Kebi-kun on it right now."

Shia looked down in thought for a moment. "Medical, compare the make-up of this enzyme to the steroid used by A12, and keep an eye on A9 for signs of the same reaction as A12. We don't need a repeat of that incident; we're running out of Subject Rooms," she grumbled, and Ukire laughed. "Continue, Kerisu."

Kerisu looked back down at his papers, grinning at her sarcastic joke. "Ahem, we're still waiting for the genome to judge A10, the dog boy's, abnormalities. And, uh, his tattoos are just normal tattoos. I also tried a few simple commands with the dog and it just growled at me, so I can't tell if it's trained to only answer to its master or if it's not trained at all. A11, the white eyed female, came up exactly the same as A6 under the scanner. The only difference is the matter of her heart problems."

Shia interrupted him there. "Ukire, look into that as well. See if she needs surgery—this opening scar sounds dangerous."

After Ukire acquiesced, Kerisu finally finished. "A12 is under Medical watch and we're waiting for genome results for A13, the pink-haired one," he snickered. "That's all for me."

The others tried to hide the deep breaths of relief that they took. Only Shia and Raifu succeeded.

"Alright then," Shia said. "It's getting late. Heads, I want you to put your assistants on shifts and make sure the experts get sleep when they need it. We don't need anyone collapsing from exhaustion….again. Dismissed."

--

6:48 pm, Day 0, Complex D7, Subject Room of A9

Acute aggravation tried to call up another sigh, but Sasuke, true to his stoic aloofness, suppressed the show of emotion. Of course, no one would really be able to blame him for his boredom. Sitting—or rather, hanging—for an undetermined amount of time with nothing but a white wall to peruse can do that to a person.

Sasuke's reputable mind had already worked out what must have happened after he had been hit with the sleeping darts. His Sharingan had allowed him to dodge the first few that came his way, but in the end there had been too many darts and not enough time for him to stay standing, and he had joined most of the rest of his team in unconsciousness. From there, he was positive that they had all been captured by an unknown enemy force and were now being held captive pending torture.

Of course, this belief was counter argued with the state of the people here in regards to chakra, as discovered earlier. Without chakra, they couldn't have the abilities of shinobi and could not, therefore, be classified as such. Despite the obvious fact that one did not need to be a ninja to instill torture, it was, nevertheless, a relieving point to Sasuke, as he considered himself above most shinobi torture practices already. What could mere civilians possibly do that would rival the horrors of his own people?

No, the only thing Sasuke really had to worry about was the Sharingan. As long as his eyes were intact, it meant two things, which were unfortunately of a contradicting manner. The first was that his captors could possibly learn the secrets of the Sharingan, and the second was that he might be powerful enough to escape this world for good. These two realizations made Sasuke uncertain as to whether he should risk destroying the Sharingan or not.

On the one hand, it would be a complete dishonor to his family to allow their secrets to be stolen by someone else, but on the other hand, if he did try to sabotage his eyes, there was very little chance that he could then escape on his own. The Sharingan probably raised his abilities ten fold, and they were his only hope to reopen a portal back home.

This train of thought opened up a can of worms involving Itachi, Naruto, family honor, and pride that occupied Sasuke's less rational mind for hours. His thoughts chased each other in circles while he tried to keep his emotional reactions at bay. However, Sasuke was still a very skilled ninja for his age, and so he noticed immediately when the whole area began shifting. There was an unusual droning sound all around him and, he couldn't be certain, but he thought that he might have changed direction at least once. Finally the movement stopped and Sasuke focused on his surroundings warily. Was this the first move of his captors?

The wall to his right suddenly swung forward and a man wearing glasses and a white overcoat entered the room. The way the door opened prevented Sasuke from seeing out into the area, so instead he surveyed the man who had entered. He looked somewhere in his late twenties, and his black hair was pulled into a pony-tail at the base of his head. He looked rather scrawny. Of course, physical appearance could be very deceiving (as Sasuke had found to his consternation in his first encounter with Rock Lee).

The white coat suggested involvement in medicine, and medic-nins were renowned for their chakra control. But doubt of this man's chakra ability crept its way into Sasuke's mind as he remembered Neji and Shino saying that these people lacked chakra. Shino's bugs and Neji's Byakugan would be able to detect the minutest traces of chakra, so their input could be trusted. A small insignia, too far away to read, was emblazoned on the coat's right breast pocket.

The man was only carrying a clipboard and pencil. That was the only reason Sasuke didn't immediately activate his Sharingan and kill the man. Instead, he raised his eyebrow skeptically.

The bespectacled man looked surprised for a moment, but then suddenly curious, and he turned around just as a blond man came into the room behind him and closed the door firmly.

"It's just the tattoo for this one, right, Kerisu?" the blond asked carelessly as he walked passed Sasuke without giving him a second glance. Sasuke's eyes narrowed. There could only be one thing they were talking about.

"Right," the first man answered, coming up to Sasuke's left and folding down the collar of the all-white suit he'd woken in. "I want to see what type of ink was used, make sure it's not infected or anything."

Sasuke tried to jerk away from the man, Kerisu's, hand, but the restraints around his jaw and arms prevented it. He knew that if they checked his supposed "tattoo," they wouldn't be finding any ink. Would it be dangerous for them to know about the cursed seal? It was already sealed by Kakashi, so there was no threat that they could take power away from him. The seal was not his design and therefore he did not care who knew of its secrets (although a tiny part of him protested this: _he_ was special; he alone deserved the power of the seal).

Satisfied that their knowing of the seal's existence could do him no harm, Sasuke instead made a small, devious plan. From the sound of it, they did not know of the Sharingan's existence yet. This meant that he could catch them off guard. He would let them worry over his cursed seal until the time was right, and then strike unexpectedly and escape. Brief thoughts of looking for his teammates and the other rookie 9 ran through his head, but he pushed that aside to deal with once he was free. After all, they could be dead already.

"Alright, let me get a look at it," the careless blond man said as he came over to Sasuke carrying a scalpel and a thin piece of glass. Sasuke, according to his plan, put up little resistance as the blond man poked at the cursed seal. The man's light colored eyebrows furrowed slightly.

"This isn't a tattoo," he told his partner.

The curious one, who had been watching Sasuke's blank facial expression, blinked over at the blond. "What?"

"I know tattoos, and this isn't one. Here, I'll take a sample; we'll look at it under a microscope." With that, he ran the scalpel over the black skin without cutting it and then wiped it over the glass piece before they both moved behind him.

Sasuke didn't know exactly what they were doing, but he could still hear them.

"Woah…" It was the curious one.

"What? Lemme see." Scuffling feet, shifting papers. "Are those enzymes?"

"Yes." A paper was rustled loudly and nearly torn. "See the design? Same as this."

"That makes the substrates whole cells."

A tense silence.

"… We need to break it down for further analysis, but it's almost 8 o'clock; I have to finish the rounds and then report."

"I can start it while you're gone."

"Alright. I'll send Kebi-kun in to keep you company."

"Ask him to bring an extra set."

"I'll be back as soon as possible." The curious man left the room then, leaving the door open. Sasuke considered this a poor idea, but didn't try anything. He had already tested the strength of his bonds earlier and knew it was pointless to try to break them. He suspected that not even Rock Lee could get out of these.

It didn't matter anyway, since a moment later another dark-haired man with glasses entered the room. If Sasuke hadn't been so vigilant, he might have thought they were the same person, but no—they simply seemed to be of the same nationality. This one had his hair cut short and flipped upward in the front. He came in with a cardboard box, glanced at Sasuke, touched his hair nervously, and then went around to the other side of the room to join the blond man.

Sasuke was a little annoyed that they were staying out of sight, but had to admit that he would do the same. He once again commenced listening to their conversation, which didn't make much sense to him. They were blabbering on about enzymes and catalysts and components, things like activation energy and whatnot, and at one point seemed to have an argument over "chemical equilibrium." Most of these words were out of Sasuke's vocabulary, so the only thing he knew for sure was that they were discussing and studying his cursed seal. The careless one had come back for another sample at one point while giving him a cheeky grin which, combined with the blue eyes and light hair, reminded him irritatingly of Naruto.

Aside from their discussions and the sound of clanking metal and glass, Sasuke had nothing to do. He was unwilling to waver his caution while they were in the room, so he was forced to begin thinking of contingency plans, creating different scenarios in his head and then deciding what would be best to do: what if he came across the super fast weapons again? What about the sleeping darts? The monsters?

Should he try to get information out of them? No, that wouldn't work, any moron would know better than to give help to their prisoners, and these were doctors. Most doctors did not fall under the category of "stupid," though gullible was another matter entirely…He considered the possibility of deceit in his scenarios.

He was somewhat thankful for the change in pace when the original curious man with the pony-tail returned, but this melted away quickly as he joined "Kebi-kun" and the careless blond behind him. This went on for quite a while, and Sasuke was having to fight off drowsiness when the curious man came around the bed and addressed him for the first time.

"How did you get this?" he asked carefully, motioning toward the cursed seal.

Sasuke stared back blankly, refusing to answer. Even if it wasn't his invention or concern, fat chance he would help them.

"It's very dangerous for you," the man pressed on. "I need to know the origins so I can help stop it."

Sasuke mentally frowned. Dangerous? Kakashi had said something like that, but Sasuke had assumed he was just trying to keep him from gaining more power, perhaps more than Kakashi himself possessed. But if this stranger thought he could earn Sasuke's trust, then he was sadly mistaken.

The man almost looked frightened now. "Kid," he said, and Sasuke unconsciously bristled, "you have no idea what this thing is going to do to you. It's changing your cells; you won't even be human anymore."

Sasuke stared and then struggled with himself over whether to answer or not. He didn't care about their knowledge of the curse seal, right? But if they were trying to take it away…all that power…that was changing him so he wouldn't be human…but they might be lying, probably _were _lying…but Kakashi agreed to an extent….

Anger and confusion were starting to rise in Sasuke no matter how much he suppressed them. Maybe…maybe they were just messing with his mind. Yes, that must be it. This was a ploy to weaken him into giving them information. Maybe they were planning to duplicate the cursed seal to use on themselves. Sasuke's taut eyebrows relaxed again as he let the thought sink in. Don't tell them anything; that's obviously what they want, and they are the enemy. Never give the enemy what they want, because it will always hurt you.

The man seemed to give up on him when he saw Sasuke's deliberately blank expression, and went back to jabbering with the other two. Before long, they had decided to move back out of the room, only referring to their destination as "the lab." They took a sample of his blood and a few other places on his body ("We can check to see how far it's spread.") and then left with their equipment on a rolling table. Sasuke only managed to glimpse several beakers and Petri dishes with liquids in them before they were behind the door and he was alone once again.

_Don't give them anything,_ he thought again. _They're looking for weakness._

--

9:51 pm, Day 0, Complex D7, Living Quarters, Kitchen

Shia opened the refrigerator, looking for supplement after the long first day on the job. Her stomach rumbled loudly as she pulled out the ingredients for a sandwich and set to making it. It was a lamentable detail that legitimate Japanese cooks were difficult to come by in America, so they were stuck with generic American food, which seemed to be centered around sandwiches, chips, and fast food.

As she sat down at a nearby bench (rather like in a cafeteria) and started eating, she glanced around at the other occupants of the room. She was currently located in the middle part of the open residential room, which acted as a dining room, between the kitchen and living room parts. Five other benches besides the one she was seated at were lined up in front of her. A few of her colleagues were eating at these while others were lounging at the couch watching television. These were the people who, like her, would be getting a normal nights rest. Shia didn't have anything to do until the other Heads could do more research, and that would take time.

The solitary door at the far end of the room beyond the couches opened to allow Kire, Head of Psychology, to enter. He made his way brusquely to the kitchen, passing behind Shia's bench. He paused behind her.

Shia could feel his glare sizzling into the back of her head. Without pause, Shia closed her mouth while she was chewing, and he continued to the fridge. As soon as he was out of earshot, she stopped censoring her eating habits. By the time he returned to sit across from her, she was once again chewing without sealing her lips, and he had to stare her into proper manners again.

She glared at him this time. "I have to open my mouth to get my teeth around the food, you know," she argued.

"And you know that I hate that sound," he shot back, pulling a bottle of mustard to him. "Mmmm," he said as he spread the yellow substance over his deli style sandwich.

"That's disgusting," Shia said blandly.

He snorted in derision. "You only put meat, cheese, and lettuce on yours. It's completely _dry._"

She shrugged, and Kire looked at her closer.

"What's up?" he asked carefully.

Shia made a kind of gesture with her shoulder that might have been a half-shrug or might have been a twitch. "Just thinking..." She took a bite of food and chewed it slowly. "…It feels like we're barely scratching the surface with these kids. There are so many variables, so many possibilities."

Kire nodded solemnly. "I know what you mean. That blonde girl who I checked on today—she thought I was going to kill her or something. It was weird how…_not scared_ she was. If anything, she seemed _angry_. If I woke up like that, I would probably flip out and demand a lawyer."

Shia snorted softly at this before going back to her sandwich, forgetting to chew quietly.

Kire glared and pouted mildly before diving into his own sandwich with gusto. After a few minutes of comfortable silence, in which Shia remembered to try to quiet down her eating, Kire looked back up from his almost finished sandwich. "You think I should do rounds now, or start tomorrow?"

Shia's eyebrows tightened. "What? Oh," she said, remembering her suggestion to Kire about getting a feel for the subjects' personalities before deciding who would council who. "I dunno. How tired are you?"

"I'm actually feeling pretty well rested. No idea why; I'm usually exhausted by now."

Shia snorted softly. "Probably because you took a nap on the train."

He smiled sheepishly. "You heard about that?"

"No," she answered, going back to her food while she secretly roiled in pride at knowing Kire so well, "I guessed. Anyway, if you're not feeling tired, and you're done examining the brain of A8, then go ahead and do it tonight."

"Well, I was only able to make one trip before your 'necessary' meeting, so I might check her again tomorrow. You heading to bed?" When she nodded, he looked amused. "All the social interaction got you beat?"

Shia declined to respond, and Kire laughed before throwing his paper plate away. Just as he had done when he had entered, he stopped behind her on his way out.

"Geez, Shia. You got here first and yet I finished eating twice as much as you before you're half done."

"If you were facing me like a man, I would kick you," Shia answered snidely without turning around.

Kire left the room laughing. Shia stared across the room at the closed door for a moment before finishing her sandwich, grabbing a glass of ice water, and going to her room. She set about meticulously brushing her teeth and changing before crawling into the unfamiliar bed. There she laid awake for almost two hours, thoughts swirling until they settled enough for her to slip into sleep. Her last nagging thought was, _I feel like__ I forgot something…_

Meanwhile, in a room several hundred yards away, a blond boy with three slashes on each cheek screamed in annoyance. "Argh! Let me down! My legs are numb, dammit!"

It would appear that Bikenu Shia had forgotten to lay the subjects' beds horizontal again.

--

Bikenu Shia: Main Head

Mante Raifu: Head of Technology

Vinlo Kerisu: Head of Physiology; Experts: Masayo Shota

Enmaro Kire: Head of Psychology; Experts: Setano Suki

Minamo Ukire: Head Medic; Experts: Derubi Akane, Kamara Jiru

Subjects/Shinobi: A1—Lee, A2—Kakashi, A3—Shino, A4—Tenten, A5—Shikamaru, A6—Neji, A7—Naruto, A8—Ino, A9—Sasuke, A10—Kiba, A11—Hinata, A12—Chouji, A13—Sakura.

AN: Wooh, this was the most difficult, and longest, chapter yet. Sorry for the delayed update. I can't promise that the next will be any better. In fact, it might be longer, considering that summer's over. But anyway, I will keep going with this story, even if I can't update until next summer (which I don't _think_ will happen, but, well, life demands attention…).

Thanks to everyone who viewed and reviewed the story so far, and I hope things aren't becoming too boring. We're still in the beginning stages here. Expect a few more chapters of the scientists "testing the waters" around the ninjas, so to speak. This chapter is unedited (by someone else) because my editor seems to be incommunicado at the moment. Unless I can contact her, I am without an editor, so if anyone sees any mistakes, please, I would like to know.

There have been a few concerns about the OCs. Addressing this issue once again, all I can say is that it is not really necessary to know anything except for the role of each scientist (for instance, psychology or medical). Yes, they do have their own personalities and backgrounds, but no, these things aren't necessary to know for the story to flow onward or for you to understand it. The main OCs are the Heads and Shia, so if you have an honest desire to get to know any of the characters, focus on them.

Oh, and before I forget, I have to thank one of my reviewers (FFFX), who pointed out to me that I had completely forgotten about Sasuke's cursed seal. –Bangs head on the wall— That mistake is inexcusable.

Most of my information for this chapter was found on the internet, so I can't really account for the credibility of it all. However, I do hope it sounds reasonable enough to everyone.

Questions/Comments for this chapter:

1. If we have any experts here (for I am certainly no such thing), then would you say my explanations on Chouji sound plausible?

2. Based on the info Kire (Head of Psychology) gave, anyone care to guess what's up with Ino's brain?

3. Anyone like/hate the Abyss idea?

4. For me to get the point of discovering things about the shinobi across, I need to use the scientists' POVs more often than not. Is bringing in the POV of at least one shinobi per chapter satisfactory? Though I'm still going to work on mainly ninja POVs from now on...

5. Was Ino characterized alright? She's the one I had so much trouble with. Eventually I thought "what does a typical twelve year old girl think about?" and then it hit me: Sasuke. So, yeah, her person is sort of rooted around her infatuation with Sasuke, or her connection with her family, etc.

6. I have this belief that Sasuke is very calculating during fights, but when he is out of immediate danger his emotions tend to swarm him more easily, causing him to be constantly arguing with himself, hence his brooding. Anyone notice the shift from emotional turmoil about the Sharingan to calm evaluation of the scientists and his escape plans?

7. The scenes felt mixed up to me because part of Sasuke's came before the scientists' end of the day review. Did everyone grasp the timeline alright, or do I need to shift some things? I edited Ino's POV to come at the beginning of the chapter. I also put in the time and place for each scene.

8. Lee's suit idea. Yeah. It explains why Gai is so insistent that the suit is a big part of the training, but I feel like it's kind of lacking. However, it was the only explanation I could think of for why someone Lee's size can be as strong as Kakashi when said someone doesn't even have the capacity to use chakra. So, meh.

Thanks again for reading, and I hope to see you again. Next chapter: Kire gets to know some of the subjects and gets to worry about others.

-Itallia

P.S. I almost forgot. I've got an update panel on my profile now so you can see where I am on the next chapter.


	5. Interviews

Disclaimer: Don't own Naruto, but this fanfic and the ideas and original characters within it are mine.

Summary: We've all seen the stories where someone is transported to the Naruto world, so what if things are switched. How is our world going to handle Naruto? Non-crack

Note 1: This story is set pre-Sasuke betrayal, post-Godaime. It's about the time that Sasuke is released from the hospital, but before Sound gets him.

Note 2: I went back and put in a setting at the beginning of every new scene and will continue to do so. If you are confused about time or place, please reference these.

**Announcement: I have officially ABANDONED this story. For more details, see my profile.**

--

Humane Studies

Chapter 4: Interviews

10:02 pm, Day 0, America, Area 51, Complex D7, Third Level

Kire, Head of Psychology, stood nervously in front of a long, curving wall, behind which were thirteen subjects whose origins and abilities were, for the most part, still unknown. Kire had just finished talking with the main Head, Shia, and decided to get the first meetings with the subjects over with tonight despite the late hour. That nap on the underground shuttle wouldn't allow him to fall asleep for another few hours at least. So after printing out the current notes about the various subjects and nabbing one of his coworker's clipboards, he'd gone to the Third Level.

In a way he was looking forward to getting to know the subjects, who might very well be aliens of some sort. However, as with any project he undertook, Kire felt a gnawing kind of fear that he might screw up at some point, and had to fight the urge to turn around and find something fun to do—like harass Kerisu with Shota—instead of completing his objective.

And so, with a sigh, Kire opened the door of A1, pasted on a smile, and stepped through.

--

10:03 pm, Day 0, Complex D7, Subject Room of A1

_1756…1757…1758…hold…1759…_

Rock Lee was known for his perseverance in training, his rigorous stress on improvement. Bearing this in mind, it was quite understandable that, even when almost completely restrained (even his _fingers_ had individual clasps), he still found a way to train his body. Lee was currently doing full body muscle strains against his bindings, pushing with all his strength as a replacement for weight lifting and other exercises. This exercise felt strange without the usual tension against his skin from his suit and the weights about his ankles, not to mention the awkward upright position, but he considered this a new experience and therefore worth enduring for an enrichment to his youthful fire.

_Yosh! I must show Gai-sensei this new exercise!_

This exuberant thought brought up the memory of where exactly he was—or, to be more accurate, where he didn't know he was. According to his fellow peers, they had been transferred to some kind of other "dimension." Not being familiar with this word, Lee had only been able to look around in amazement at the strange place they had been in. The buildings that had stretched high and mighty and the black, hard ground were foreign to his limited knowledge of the world and its ways. It had brought a fire into his heart to explore and conquer this grand new environment, and so he had excitedly followed their appointed leader's command to follow the strange moving beast that had sped by them.

Later while they had been trapped in the walls of beasts and buildings and his great rival Neji had confirmed Shino-san's claim that the people surrounding them lacked chakra, his heart had burst with a strange mix of sympathy, confusion, and a nervous joy. While Lee himself did have some chakra, it was only enough to sustain his life, and he had absolutely no control over it. Finding out that there may be other people (and so many!) with a predicament similar to his was like finding the secret to opening all eight gates without any risks, or like breathing again when he had forgotten he was holding his breath.

But these people who were so like him were a threat. He had found himself pitted against them and their new and strange weapons, and this was almost a depressing thought. He had quickly cheered himself up with the notion that it was all a big misunderstanding and that, once they realized that Lee and his fellow shinobi were not intending an infiltration, they would generously help them in their quest for home.

To his disappointment, they had been forced to defend themselves, and still they had fallen.

This was a point that he was feeling minor shame over. When Tsunade had ordered his team to be on the next Genin Evaluation, she had specifically come to him and told him that he was not to attend because of his still healing injuries. Lee had protested vehemently, and gone through a myriad of exercises to prove to the medic-nin that he was just as capable as his teammates. In the end the new Hokage had grudgingly allowed him to accompany his team, marking his records as fully healed with hospital leave, but she had told him to take it easy. However, Lee knew his body better than anyone, and he could tell that he wasn't quite done healing yet. His movements were sluggish compared to his normal speeds, and he could feel the strain it put on his bones.

It was for this reason, and this reason alone, that Lee was hit by the incoming dart. He had dropped like a boulder as darkness crept into his vision and mind, already feeling the guilt of letting his team down because of his lies about his condition.

When he came to, he found himself restrained by metal, his wonderful green suit taken away. He lamented this passionately—what would Gai-sensei say? How much would his training suffer? Shortly after, he collected himself with the sudden question of why he was restrained and where he was. The blank white wall in front of him gave no answers. The same could be said for the few people who had entered the room—one man with a long black ponytail had been poking his arms and legs for a while, and taken what he had called "samples." The man had seemed nice enough, but it wasn't very comforting when needles had come into the picture. He had taken Lee's blood and checked his body temperature and swathed the inside of his cheek, and then left with a cheerful goodbye.

Once Lee was alone, he quickly became anxious to get back to training. His whole schedule was thrown off, he knew that already, but he had to at least get _some_ exercise in, which led to his current discovery of a new way of exercising.

Lee had been repeating these body strains for what felt like hours when the hidden door to his right opened and a stranger entered. Unlike the man with the pony-tail from before, this man was tall with curly hair. The man was smiling genially as he closed the door and came over to stand by Lee, his hand poised over a clipboard.

"Hello," he said pleasantly, "my name is Kire, what's your's?"

Lee stared at Kire in confusion, and then registered his question. Fire lit in his eyes as the chance to spread his name came into realization.

"I am ROCK LEE, Konoha's Beautiful Green Beast!" he proclaimed, and would have struck the nice-guy pose if his arms weren't clamped down. "What nation do you hail from, Kire-san?"

"Uh…Japan," the man said, writing something down quickly on the notepad held within the clipboard.

"Japan?" Lee answered, wracking his mental maps of the different lands surrounding Fire Country. "I have not heard of such a village. Is it very far from Konoha?"

"I would expect so," the man said in an odd tone.

Ah, the man must be nervous to be talking to a foreigner! Lee gave a sparkling grin and said, "If I have not heard of it, then it is surely not on the enemy list; therefore, we are brothers in youth! I have heard that you do not have chakra, Kire-san?"

The man looked surprised. "No, I don't."

"Yosh! We are truly brothers, then, and you will understand my need to train. You must return my suit to me so that I can continue my youthful dreams!"

"Your suit," Kire said slowly. "The green one? I've seen it, it's quite…unique. You seem to have done something to it with, er, chakra. Could you possibly tell me what the purpose of it is?"

"Ooooh!" This man was obviously interested in intense taijutsu training, just like Lee himself. It made sense, he thought. If this man had no chakra, then his only chance to be a ninja was to train hard in taijutsu, and Lee could empathize. "It is a magnificent invention of my sensei that will allow you to train the body twice as much as normal! The suit forces you to use your muscles not only to perform regular exercises, but also to combat the strain of the material. Wearing it full-time means you are training every second of the day and night!"

"Ah, I see. So you like training, then?"

"If I am to become a taijutsu master and prove myself worthy of being a ninja, then I must train as much as possible! I will do 5000 body strains, and if I cannot complete that, I—"

Lee paused as he realized that the body strains were really the only type of training he could do at the moment.

"Please sir, I must return to training! No, my whole group must return to Konoha! Can you help in this most important mission, Kire-san??"

The man was looking a little uncertain now, slowly backing toward the door. "Um, well, I'll see what I can do…" he trailed off awkwardly.

Tears of gratitude rushed down Lee's face. "Thank you, my youthful brother!"

"Sure thing. Bye." Kire all but ran from the room, leaving Lee to continue his exercises and thoughts of flaming youth.

--

10:15 pm, Day 0, Complex D7, Third Level

Kire breathed a sigh of relief as he closed the door behind him. That kid was insane! Before he could go off on a mental rant, he pushed the conversation from his mind. He didn't want to deal with that right now. Instead, he moved to look into the next room, which housed the still sleeping adult. Ninja, eh? So this man was some sort of ninja teacher to these kids? The multiplying mask was still on his face and both his eyes were closed, making the vertical scar on one very clearly visible. From what Kire remembered of the reports, that was the same eye that was red with black markings. Kire wondered if it had been implanted during a surgery of some kind, and the scar was from the entry cut.

He shook off his pondering and continued to the next SR. He glanced at the pale complexion and golden eyes of A3. The holes in the side of his cheek were barely visible from here, but it still made Kire shiver at the idea. Bugs living in your body? Yuck! He covered up his revulsion and entered the room.

--

10:19, Day 0, Complex D7, Subject Room of A3

Not for the first time, Shino considered how much of a failure their unspoken mission to find home had been.

When they'd first arrived in this "other dimension," Shino had been leery of allowing his bugs to explore. He'd had to weigh the need for knowledge of the terrain against the possibility of unknown hostilities attacking his miniscule allies, and in the end decided that two Byakugans were acceptable enough to scout the area. Thus, his bugs had initially stayed with him.

Shino had later sent a few diagnostic scouts out, when they had been cleverly and cleanly trapped by the enemy. The results were shocking. His bugs had returned to him and, in their language of emotion and intention, had expressed a desire for food that had not been found in the other humans they had visited. Their jobs were usually to memorize a specific chakra signature, in case the person needed to be identified later.

The knowledge that the enemy didn't have chakra at all and yet were still able to make an attack that none of the shinobi present were able to see was disconcerting, to say the least. It reduced Shino's bugs' abilities by a significant amount, as they could not drain the enemies of chakra. Shino kept the rest of his miniature allies with him after that, not wanting to risk the enemy's unknown weapons cutting down his numbers. So, like the rest of his team, Shino had fallen back on the classic shinobi operative weapons: kunai and shuriken.

Of course the slight headway into negotiations that Shikamaru had managed just _had_ to go sour. Before Shino knew it, his shinobi allies were falling down all around him. He himself felt the sharp prick of a weapon entering his skin, not being able to dodge at the high speeds the weapons worked at. Desperately going on the defensive, his bugs had begun absorbing the poison being injected into his system. The type of poison was soon apparent: as soon as they absorbed a bit, the bugs would drop off into oblivious sleep. Even as Shino sent fire at the enemy, he felt the pricks of pain indicating more attacks. Finally, the amount of poison entering his system got too high for the bugs to balance, and Shino also fell into oblivion.

The only consolation Shino found in the whole debacle was that he was fairly certain he'd managed to cut someone's foot off. Really, did those people think they were hidden well behind that hunk of glass and metal? Their lower legs were woefully exposed, as were their backs (not a single one of them were keeping a look-out for a third party). Shino had earlier come to the conclusion that the people who had no doubt captured them were not shinobi in any meaning of the word. It was disappointing, in a way.

Shino would have been thinking with a clearer head, but he was panicking in a way. Waking up completely alone was something he hadn't experienced—ever. The normal hum of business from his bugs was absent. Shino thought he should have felt colder without their presence, but he felt oddly warm. The metal restraints felt shockingly cold even through the fabric of the white suit he had woken up in. He swallowed against a dry throat and tried to ignore the gaping hole literally left in his chest cavity where the bugs normally housed themselves. His lungs had more room to move, but it felt harder to breath. His heart had fallen into an erratic rhythm.

The experience was a torture all its own. Shino barely noticed his surroundings, so focused was he on his internal state of being. His thoughts meandered randomly through the past few days and the possibilities of the future, but more than often he found his attention shifting to the horribly wrong feeling of everything. His bugs followed a strict internal clock, which usually allowed Shino to know the time of day no matter his surroundings. Now his sense of time was completely thrown off. He had no colony to consult with about their next collective move, no way to explore his cell, no way to find the other shinobi. There was none of the normal activity in his body and he could feel his stomach rumbling, a feeling that was usually easy to ignore in the cacophony of other sensations. Now it felt ominously loud.

In short, Shino was completely lost.

But he wasn't lost enough that he didn't notice the man who entered through a hidden door to the right. He wore a large white overcoat buttoned in the front that made several possible professions run through Shino's mind.

Still, the first question that ran through his mind, the first impulse he had to suppress, was "Where are they?" And he meant all his allies, human and bug alike.

In the end he still had his self control, and managed to _not_ ask his questions and keep a blank face throughout the man's futile interrogation. He disaffectedly noticed that the man's hair was very curly and that he talked with his hands a lot. There were laugh lines around his mouth and his eyes were too large and innocent.

As for the questions, most were what he expected, but the one about his age surprised him. What could knowing his age help with? Perhaps in combination with knowing his last name, they could pinpoint exactly who he was within his clan. Or maybe it was for paper filing reasons. Shino gave up on the line of thought in the face of the next attempt at small talk. That was another weird thing: it wasn't all questions. The man seemed to be trying to get Shino to participate in a conversation. He even introduced himself as "Kire," though this was probably a codename.

Shino was a little surprised that the man gave up so quickly. This Kire didn't resort to intimidation, threats, or torture. He just appeared to be disappointed at Shino's lack of response and then bid him farewell before leaving.

Shino quickly dismissed the man and found himself dwelling on his current state. He had a headache developing. The metal restraints felt colder than ever against his skin and Shino had to sniff to suppress a sudden strong urge to sneeze. It seemed he'd already been here forever, and forever kept dragging on and on with Shino stuck in its powerful grip, trying not to lose his mind and composure to shock.

--

10:33 pm, Day 0, Complex D7, Subject Room of A4

"So how are you doing?"

Tenten glared at the man who had been interrogating her for some minutes now. He had come in, clip-board in hand, and started asking questions: what was her name, her age, where was she from? He acted as though she should be giving up the answers willingly, and had an annoyingly pleasant attitude about the whole thing. However, the most vexing thing of all was that he wasn't even treating her like a proper ninja—he was treating her like a child, and that really ticked her off.

Tenten had grown up as the second child with three brothers and a sister. Only one of her brothers were near enough to her in age to be any fun. She and her family had also lived in what she called "boy-ville." The only girl who was her age and who lived nearby was completely stuck-up. Soon, Tenten's brother, the one she played with since they were little, had made friends with the other boys in the neighborhood, but didn't want her to come along because, as he said, "you're a _girl_."

So Tenten had been stuck playing with her two youngest siblings. The Ninja Academy had been a welcome relief from the redundancy of home, and it was there that she was taught that boys and girls were equal in the arts of a ninja. Tenten was hooked from that day forward. But even then, she would look around and notice the smaller number of girls passing the test to become genin, and would notice that the most powerful shinobi were males.

"_Men are just made to be stronger than women_," her mom had said as she washed dishes while Tenten's father was outside nailing together a clubhouse for her brother and his friends. Then she patted Tenten's head. "_Why don't you go play with the other kids, now?_"

Tenten didn't want to believe it, but looking around at the various inhabitants of Konoha, at the simple physical differences between males and females, she had eventually admitted to herself that it was true: men _were_ made to be stronger than women.

This realization threw her into depression, and her ninja studies began slipping. She had started resigning herself to the fate of a housewife like her mom, and was just about to quit the Academy when a girl a year younger than her was enrolled. The girl was plainly a Hyuuga, but was very quiet-spoken for coming from such a prestigious clan. When Tenten tried talking to her, she found that the girl, Hinata, was actually the heir to the clan.

This acted as a metaphorical slap in the face for Tenten. All her ideas about male supremacy were shattered, especially when it became apparent that even the second runner-up for clan heir was also a girl, Hinata's younger sister Hanabi.

From there, Tenten had done a little research. She'd learned about the Sannin, and how Tsunade was considered just as powerful as her teammates, if not more. But it still wasn't exactly what she'd hoped for: the "Legendary Sucker" was known for her strength, yes, but mostly for her medical skills. Medicine, to Tenten, sounded like the epitome of female put-downs. It screamed "I'm not powerful enough to fight, so I'll just heal instead."

Tenten had avoided medical practices as much as she could after that. Her sensei had looked quite confused at her deep scowl when they learned first aid. When weapons practice came around in her second year at the Academy, Tenten found that she had much better depth perception than her classmates, and her aim was very advanced for a first-timer. Now, three years of practice later, she had near-perfect 100 accuracy. Tenten's knowledge of weaponry was as advanced as Lee's taijutsu or Neji's Byakugan control.

This "other-dimension" business was all a bit strange, as was the unusual look of this world. But in the end, as evidenced by the man currently interrogating her, it was still the same: the enemy was still treating her inferior.

Tenten mentally tallied the dimensions of the room—or as much of it as she could see. 7 feet to the wall in front of her, approximately 11 feet on either side (the wall was at a slight slant, making Tenten suspect that the area behind her was larger than the area in front of her), and 10 feet to the door on the right side of the front wall, which was the door the man had come through.

The man was slowly working her temper higher and higher. He had introduced himself as "Kire" and then started hounding her with questions. If anyone who knew Tenten well enough was present, they would know the tell-tale signs of her rising annoyance by the slight twitch of her fingers in their small restraints. If weapons had been present, the man would be Swiss cheese by now.

After Tenten refused to say "how she was," the man dropped a name she knew.

"So how's Lee been, lately? He's a bit disappointed that he can't train at the moment…"

Tenten turned her glare up a few notches at the man's casual tone. He'd switched tactics. Now he was trying to catch her by surprise by revealing that he had found out Lee's name. A name was the first step to destruction for a shinobi who had been caught by the enemy. If they knew your name, then they could get information on your abilities, find out where you were from, and then you'd really be in trouble.

Tenten fiercely promised that she wouldn't fall for it.

When this latest question still didn't get a verbal reaction from Tenten, the man switched tactics again.

"When was the last time you had your hair cut? It's looking a bit frayed at the ends there. And what's with the buns you came in with? Clearly not your style."

Her cheeks grew taut with a mix of anger and embarrassment, though at least she managed to keep the blush down. Tenten never gave her hair as much attention as girls like Sakura and Ino, and because of that it was rather lacking. But why should she care? She was a ninja, dammit! Ninjas didn't care about appearance unless it jeopardized a mission. _Yes,_ Tenten reminded herself as she took a deep, calming breath, _you're a good ninja, unlike those two airheads. Their fight in the prelims was pathetic._

Of course, this reminded Tenten of her own disastrous fight, but she batted the thought away. _It was a bad match-up,_ she thought. _I just have to train harder._ And she would…

…as soon as she got out of this hell prison!

"Look, maybe we got off on the wrong foot. Why don't we call a truce. I'll answer your questions if you answer mine. Deal?"

Tenten ignored the annoying man and his latest tactic. And so it continued, until Kire finally gave up trying to get Tenten to talk, and left her to her triumph.

--

10:47 pm, Day 0, Complex D7, Third Level

As soon as Kire shut the door, he heard over the speaker the brown-eyed girl saying "hah! Take that." She was smirking through the one-way glass.

His eye twitched. Cheeky little brat. This didn't spoil his newly returned good mood, though: baiting her had been rather amusing.

Kire gave a small sigh and moved down the hall to the next room. He paused outside it, looking through the class at the boy with his hair in a spiking ponytail. This was the subject that Shia had wrung a promise of answers from.

Feeling that his prospects were slightly better with this boy, Kerisu entered the room.

--

10:48 pm, Day 0, Complex D7, Subject Room of A5

Shikamaru had dozed off at some point. It took him considerably longer without the comfort of fluffy white clouds drifting across a blue sky, and with the discomfort of his unfortunate situation, but he still managed. It came with the 200+ IQ.

The hidden door opening woke him up. Shikamaru eyed the man who came in with an expression that was at once lazy and judgmental (or perhaps judgmental for its laziness?). Overall he reminded Shikamaru of a large puppy. Or rabbit. But there was a strange kind of intelligence in his eyes. It wasn't the genius sort found in Shikamaru himself, or Sasuke or Neji; it was the kind that spoke of an intuitive understanding of the happenings in life and the motivations that drove people.

A perfect interrogator, Shikamaru concluded.

"Should I assume you are an associate of the woman from earlier?" Shikamaru asked.

The man looked surprised that Shikamaru had volunteered to speak first, but he smiled and nodded. "Her name's Shia, and mine is Kire." The self-dubbed Kire flipped through his clipboard briefly. "So, you know that we're on a, er, mission to find out about the unique abilities of you and your group. I have a couple questions, if you wouldn't mind."

A very devious idea formed in Shikamaru's mind. The way he had worded that…and if this Kire was working with the woman who had dragged a promise out of him…yes, it could work. In this game of wits, Shia had made the first aggressive move, and now it was time to spring his counterattack.

Meeting Kire's eyes, Shikamaru answered "alright" in a laid-back tone.

The honest smile Shikamaru received gave him a small stab of guilt, but he ignored it. "Thank you, Shikamaru. Alright, so: how old are you?"

Shikamaru was already mentally laughing at the waste this questioning session was going to be for them. "I'm almost 13," he answered truthfully, cooperatively. That woman, Shia, wouldn't be able to say he hadn't cooperated.

"Oh the woes of the teen years," Kire said with a grin, then continued. "The white-haired man you were dragging around with you, he's your sensei?"

"Not mine specifically, no," Shikamaru answered carefully, uncomfortable with how at ease Kire seemed, as though they were having a casual conversation over tea.

"Oh, I see. So who is your teacher then? Or do you not have one?"

Shikamaru eyed the man lazily. "Sorry, but you've used up your quota of questions."

Kire blinked in astonishment. "I'm sorry?"

"You said you had 'a couple questions.' You have just asked me two questions, which I answered. I've fulfilled my end of the bargain."

Kire's stared disbelievingly at Shikamaru, who stared back through half-lidded eyes. Checkmate; the man was no match.

"I didn't mean that literally, though!" Kire tried to reason.

"Oh? Well I'm sorry, you should have been a little more specific. Oh, and you can tell Shia that I've fulfilled my promise: I cooperated with your questions. Now, if you don't mind, you interrupted my nap."

And Shikamaru closed his eyes and tried to get comfortable again, ignoring the absolutely gobsmacked expression on Kire's face.

He soon heard the man storming from the room, and when he peeked out his eyelids saw that the room was indeed empty. He felt a small wave of triumph run through him as well as a sense of freedom. He was no longer obligated to answer any of Shia's questions: his debt was paid through her coworker. This was an immense blessing, as there was a sharp quality in Shia's maneuvers that put Shikamaru on edge; he idly wondered how much of a challenge she would be at shogi. However, in this game, Shikamaru could safely say he'd claimed victory. Score: Shikamaru—1, Shia—0.

--

10:56 pm, Day 0, Complex D7, Third Level

Kire closed the door with a bit more force than necessary and glared through the one-way glass at Shikamaru, who had just outsmarted him as if Kire was a three year old.

Kire brought intensely sarcastic thoughts to mind to cover up his temper while it settled, then rubbed his forehead wearily. Oh God, Shia was going to be so pissed off…

He sighed and collected himself, then made his way to the next door. The boy behind it had rather creepy, empty eyes. His hair was unusually long: not a lot of men, even in Japan, wore their hair that long in this day and age. Kire wondered if it was part of a tradition, and vowed that he wouldn't screw up this interview. He would get answers from the white-eyed boy if it was the last thing he did. With this conviction, he opened the door.

--

11:02 pm, Day 0, Complex D7, Subject Room of A6

Not many people would enjoy feeling blind. In fact, most would be downright hysterical if they lost their sight. For this reason, credit had to be given to Neji, for he was feeling particularly blind at this point in time.

Neji had woken much like his comrades (though he did not know this), strapped to a vertical bed and facing a white wall. While the others were helpless to see more of their new environment, Neji knew better, so he quickly activated his Byakugan to take a good look around.

At least, he tried to.

Blinking his eyes rapidly, Neji tried once again to activate his family's eyes. He closed his eyelids carefully and concentrated, then snapped his eyes open to activate his chakra.

Nothing happened.

At this point, it must be admitted that he lost his head a bit, trying repeatedly to use the technique despite his obvious inability to do so. Finally he got a grip on himself, taking a deep breath to clear his panic-filled mind. Then he calmly and strategically evaluated what might be wrong with him.

The thought that maybe he just could not use the Byakugan without hand seals came to mind, but Neji dismissed this because he had practiced too much _without_ hand seals to suddenly need them again. A second idea was that he was out of chakra, but this was also discarded on the grounds that he was not feeling any symptoms of chakra exhaustion. It was possible that his tenketsu had been closed. This idea was thrown out almost instantly as he realized he felt no pain along his chakra outlet points or in his system. Running out of options, he finally decided to check his chakra pathways manually to make sure nothing was obstructing the way. And by manually, he meant through meditation, a long-lived practice in the Hyuuga clan.

Falling into a meditative state, he began to search through himself for anything wrong with his chakra system. His tenketsu were undamaged, as were his chakra coils and container.

But wait…as Neji brushed along his chakra container, the 'Abyss' as it was called by some, he noticed the oddly docile nature of his chakra. Immediately he knew that this was the problem. Mentally trying to call forth any of the chakra in this calm pool had no results—it was as though the energy was weighted down by a strong gravity, shackled just as he himself was.

Neji allowed his mind to surface from his meditation, not quite sure what to think of this discovery. Had the people without chakra—the people he had dismissed as weak—been able to do something to his chakra? Neji thought back to the events leading up to his capture. Hatake-sensei, who Gai-sensei frequently ranted about, had been overseeing their Genin Evaluation. Had Neji not been humbled in his fight with Naruto during the chunin exams, he probably would have detested being sent with a bunch of first year genin. As it was, he instead looked forward to challenging the persistent blond again.

Unfortunately, Neji's plans were dashed. Hatake Kakashi had order them to prove their survival and trapping abilities in a simple exercise involving opposite teams and flags. The constant onslaught of the opposite team had kept all the young shinobi busy, and Neji had not been able to challenge Naruto to a spar. While he was planning to do so the second day of the Evaluation, the interference of the strange black-cloaked enemy had prevented it. Neji had spotted the puppets only _after_ his party was surrounded, and the implications of this did not vote well for the Konohanians.

What had happened afterward was the single most out-of-body experience that Neji would ever experience in his life. Having the Byakugan activated put him in a unique position, allowing him to see nearly everything that was happening on the battlefield in the same breath of time. In an instant, Neji saw that they were surrounded by clay-filled puppets. Components in the clay led him to conclude that it was C4, a substance he only knew of due to the extensive Hyuuga library. Astoundingly, the chakra lines from every last puppet were linked to only one person, who hung back in the deep shadows of the forest. Surrounding them in a triangle formation were three other cloaked enemies, one with traces of the C4 on his hands and in his pockets, the second with a giant scale-covered sword strapped to his back, and the third with red Sharingan eyes. ("_A mole in their own ranks destroyed them_," his uncle had once told Neji.)

At the same time, Neji saw his own team, with Tenten just pulling out a weapon-filled scroll and Lee in a ready stance, though he was spinning slowly, not seeming able to decide which direction to face. In Uzumaki Naruto's team, the last loyal Uchiha had activated his Sharingan and was staring in shock at the Uchiha traitor as said traitor materialized in front of Naruto. Naruto was likewise staring at the dark-haired man in surprise, though his face was quickly shifting to recognition with a hint of fear (Neji felt his gut twist at this. If it was enough to make _Naruto_ fearful, then they were all in a load of—). Haruno was calling Naruto's name in fright as she finally noticed the imposing figure in front of Naruto.

The genius Nara boy and his team were standing quite close to Neji. The Akimichi was standing in front of his two teammates while the Nara had his hands in a seal that Neji had never seen before—a circle that was all thumbs and forefingers. The Yamanaka heir was looking around in bewilderment. In Neji's cousin's team, Hinata-sama was doing something strange with her chakra, circulating it slowly and precisely through her chakra coils. Her dog-training teammate was just pulling out a couple pills from his pocket, glancing at the third teammate for confirmation. This last teammate, of the bug-using Aburame clan, shook his head shortly at the Inuzuka, never taking his eyes (which were revealed to Neji through the sunglasses) off Naruto's sensei.

Then Hatake's chakra had done some very intricate things that Neji was positive he had never seen before and, quite possibly, would never see again. Then he was floating and colors and images were passing by him faster than Lee—without his weights. Or perhaps it was that he was flying rapidly passed all the images. Strange cold and hot tingles were traveling through his body at irregular intervals, as if the colors around him were leaking into his body, engulfing him. There was no direction, nor gravity; Neji did not even have a body. Was this death, was this the explosion of the C4?

Then his feet were resting against solid ground, and the sensory input from the clearing in Fire Country was gone, to be replaced by a foreign environment. Neji studied this briefly and, once satisfied that there were no immediate threats in the vicinity, he turned his attention to his group. Hatake-sensei's chakra was at critically low levels. Neji was secretly impressed at his ability to remain conscious long enough to explain the situation to them and appoint a leader, though Neji was a little miffed when designated to listen to a boy a year his junior. Nevertheless, he'd decided that the Hatake's judgment was sound. From gossip Neji had heard about the chunin exam, the Nara boy was a genius at strategy and outmaneuvering his opponent. He would make an adequate leader.

The strange roaring object zoomed by, and the blonde girl lost her composure. Neji was mentally thankful that he had Tenten on his team; the alternatives were obviously far worst. Tenten was quite professional, almost resentful of being labeled as "girly" in any way. Neji had been skeptical of her skills at first, but now readily conceded that she was the most accurate shot he had ever seen.

Neji contemplated the purpose of this alien thing. Perhaps it was a mechanism for transport? Rather like a miniature train, he mused, after analyzing the components shooting out of a pipe at the back of the machine. Yes—engine, inside seating, mobility…it reminded him very much of a train.

When the shinobi had set off, Neji kept his eyes fixed on the large blind spot behind the group, constantly tilting his head ever so slightly so that _his_ personal and only blind spot was never in the same point for more than a split second. He had to force himself to trust that his comrades were competent, and _not_ to analyze the area in front of him as well as behind.

The machine that eventually followed them kept their pace easily, but did not come closer, even when they reached the max speed for the group as a whole ("_A team is only as strong as its weakest ninja. You must never be the weak one. You are a Hyuuga, and Hyuuga are always the strongest._").

The shockingly fast attack that left a smoking hole in the ground very close to Hinata-sama had Neji sweating a bit. If anything were to happen to her under Neji's care, he was certain he would not live to regret it. He should have seen the trap coming. He had the Byakugan, for Kage's sake!

Neji was shocked to find no trace of a chakra system at all, let alone chakra. Did this mean that these people were not shinobi? Hatake had said that this was a different dimension. Neji's knowledge of such things was vague, but he understood the implications. How strange a world this must be, one not centered around chakra usage. While these thoughts went through his head, Aburame Shino told the group their mutual discovery.

Neji noticed Lee's reaction to the discovery and had to fight to not roll his eyes. Lee was far too excitable. Thank God for Tenten.

While Neji was gathering as much information on the enemy as possible, the last Uchiha apparently lost his mind. Neji, having a bloodline of his own and much more extensive knowledge of the Sharingan than a Hyuuga was supposed to (despite, or perhaps because of, the distant relation of the Byakugan and Sharingan), understood that what had transported them through dimensions was some higher form of the Sharingan. He also understood that Sasuke was currently attempting to achieve this higher form, and after Shikamaru restrained the lunatic boy and talked him down, knew it had something to do with killing Naruto.

Coming back out of his memories, the young Hyuuga found himself dwelling on this point while he stared unseeingly (and wasn't that oxymoronic in itself?) at the wall. Uchiha Sasuke was Naruto's teammate and, presumably, his first rival. Neji found himself strangely envious of this position. Sure, he had Lee running back and forth, doing handstands and cartwheels and who knows what else just to beat him in a spar; but just as Kakashi was weary of Gai's constant challenges, Neji was weary of Lee's. It was too easy to best Lee in a fight. It no longer carried the same intrigue.

Then Naruto came along, a boy who was a year younger than him and _dead-last_ of his year. Neji, naturally, was the top of his year, and yet that annoying loud-mouth had somehow managed to beat him in the Chunin Exam Finals. It was downright humiliating, both to Neji personally and to his clan, but at the same time…Naruto had inspired him. It wasn't just the power and skill Naruto had shown during the fight, either. It was the fire (NOT Lee's fire). The hopelessness that came with being a Branch member of the Hyuuga clan had seemed to melt away when it came in contact with that fire, when Naruto's indomitable spirit and forceful promises had expanded to include Neji's life story. After that, his cage no longer seemed to be impenetrable. His uncle had acknowledged his talent and started training him. It was the best turn his life had ever taken.

But there was still the niggling demand of his pride, overshadowed by the larger desire to be even with the obnoxious boy who had changed his life forever. If he could rise to that level—not even to surpass him, but just to be _equal_ to him—then maybe he could be great, too.

Yet Neji did not have the honor of claiming that spot of rivalry, of being able to try again and again to best Naruto, growing the whole way until Naruto could acknowledge him as an equal. It was the last Uchiha—the boy who was the best of _his_ year and from a clan related to Neji's own; the boy who had lost everything once and yet still had far more than Neji could ever claim. That boy got to have Naruto's rivalry as well.

And that was just plain un_fair._

A hidden door opening had Neji snapping his useless clear eyes over to the man entering. His build was gangly, age probably late 20s or early 30s, no sign of hostility in his stance and he was missing the heavy shadow visible on anyone who had experienced hardship in their life, shinobi or not.

Neji snorted in derision. _This_ was his interrogator? He verbally spat on fools like this daily. If they thought they were going to break him with this weakling, they had another thing coming.

"Hello," the man said, smiling carelessly and sauntering over to lean against the wall in front of Neji, which was only a bed length away. The man was holding a clipboard, but upon examining Neji's face (his eyes lingered noticeably on the exposed Cage Bird Seal on his forehead), he folded it under his arm. "My name is Kire. I'm here to check up on you and your friends. How have—"

"Where are they?" Neji cut him off rudely, holding his head high and his voice higher. Arrogance practically oozed off him from years of knowing he was a part of the strongest and most feared clan in Konoha.

The man blinked, smile slipping a bit in puzzlement, but then it came back softer. "No need to worry. We're not here to hurt anyone. You and your friends are perfectly safe, I promise."

What was this moron spouting? Did he honestly think that his lies would allay what Neji knew was coming? Where were the needles? Where were the mind-crippling genjutsus, the threats of poison, the false promises of escape?

_Amateurs_, Neji concluded.

"So," the man continued as though he hadn't been interrupted, "how have you been?"

Neji contemplated a few demeaning responses, expression flat and bored. In the end he simply said, "you are not a threat" condescendingly before turning his eyes to the side in obvious dismissal.

"Ah, come on, don't be like that," the man was saying now, sounding slightly fearful. Neji mentally patted himself on the back. He already had the supposed interrogator falling apart. "Hey, you can use chakra, right? To make this big, blue—bubble—thing," the man said, gesturing with his arms.

This, not surprisingly, captured Neji's attention, and he eyed the man sharply, reassessing his earlier opinions. _Reconnaissance?_ he wondered. The man was lithe enough to slip in and out of places easily. Had he been present during their capture? _No…he's simply a diagnostics expert_, Neji realized as he took in the man's white suit. The term 'scientist' was not common in a world of ninja, but it was still present, and Hyuugas had extensive education.

This would be the type of expert who would pick apart Neji's eyes to discover the secrets of the Byakugan, and then sell the information to the highest bidder. Neji's bloodline limit, unfortunately, was rather more obvious than, say, the Sharingan. There was no hiding the fact that Neji was of the Hyuuga clan.

Slight panic began to set in, and then confusion. If this man was a scientist, as Neji surmised, and Neji was obviously a holder of the Byakugan, then why had the man not examined his eyes yet? Why was he not dead on a slab of stone being cut to pieces? And why, _why,_ would the man say he meant him no harm?

The vein on Neji's forehead was going into overdrive to try to calm the headache that was slowly growing. Frustrated at not being able to find answers, Neji decided to start digging—get as much information out of this softie as possible.

"Why have you brought us here?" Neji asked in a clear, cold tone.

"Well we have to keep an eye on you. We're quite curious about your abilities, you see. It would help a lot if we could get information from you guys instead of having to go digging around. We're not here to hurt anyone."

"You already said that," Neji snapped, letting out a bit of his annoyance.

"I'm just trying to drive the point home. Despite what you said, you seem to believe me and my coworkers are a threat. I assure you, we mean no harm."

"If you mean no harm," Neji said, feeling increasingly foolish for arguing with his captors over such petty details (of course he was lying, but Neji needed to know _why_ he was lying), "then why am I strapped to this bed in a solitary cell?"

"Room," Kire corrected quickly. "This is not a cell, just a room, and we need to keep you separated and…uh…restrained because I doubt you will cooperate with us otherwise. Am I incorrect?" he asked slyly, a grin tilting his mouth.

"Hmph."

"I thought not."

There was silence for a while, with Neji trying to stare the man down and Kire tapping his clipboard lightly, still having yet to write anything down.

"How old are you?" Kire finally asked.

Neji's eyelid twitched. "How old are _you_?" he asked back snidely.

"29," the man responded easily.

For shinobi, this was old indeed. If the man had been a ninja, he would have been one of the elite to have survived so long—either that or so low in the chain that he would be doing menial tasks around the village for the rest of his career. But, Neji reminded himself, this man was not a ninja in the slightest. There was no mark of physical training on him, and he had no chakra. He was a scientist who wanted information about Neji and his comrades.

Neji decided that he would bait the man—give him meaningless information (read: information that could not be used against Neji or Konoha) while pumping the man of _his_ information (read: information that could help Neji escape).

"I'm thirteen," Neji finally answered sourly. Despite knowing that his age was useless for the man to discern anything about him, Neji was still a very private person. He didn't like being forced to say anything about himself.

"Ah, thirteen. Just starting into the awkward teen years, eh? Got your eye on any girls yet?" Kire asked with an easy grin.

Neji stared at him blankly. "What?"

The man waved his hand. "Nah, never mind; guess you're still too young."

Neji bristled at this. He was too young for something? Who did this guy think he was? Neji was legally an adult since the day he graduated from the academy. He had taken on missions of infiltration and espionage. He had seen people killed in fights (though he had yet to kill someone himself).

"I'm not a child," Neji said coldly, glaring with equal freezing fervor.

"I never said you were."

Kire's serious tone made Neji back down momentarily.

"So, you're from Konoha?"

Neji stiffened again, wondering where the man had gotten such information.

"Your friend Lee told me," Kire explained when he saw Neji getting defensive again. "He seemed very intent on getting back to Konoha. How is it that you arrived here?"

"Where is 'here'?" Neji asked back.

"America—the United States of America."

Two words stuck out in Neji's mind: _United_ and _States._ "America" meant nothing, but United States implied a working system of government. Every government had an army and chain of command, which meant organization, planning, cunning. It also meant that this man, regardless of who he was or what he wanted, had to listen to someone higher up. Kire, though far from a shinobi in lifestyle and upbringing, shared one thing in common with the heavily trained assassins: they were both mere pawns, moved about and controlled by someone of higher authority. And no matter what Kire's personal plans might be, he had to obey that higher authority.

Which, oddly enough, instilled some sense of kinship in Neji. It was like the caged bird scenario all over again.

"We traveled here," Neji said.

"Ah. How did you do that? How long did it take you?"

"I don't know," Neji said evasively. "I wasn't the one who organized the move."

"Who did then?" Kire paused. "Was it the white-haired man? Your sensei?"

Neji regarded him suspiciously again. "He is not my sensei."

"But you do have one, right?" Kire persisted. "You are a…ninja-in-training?"

Neji was going to beat Lee to a pulp if they survived this. Instead of showing his surprise at being found-out, Neji raised his chin haughtily. "I am not a ninja-in-training. I AM a ninja, and I could dispose of you in an instant." Hopefully that would instill proper fear into the man. He was taking Neji and the other shinobi far too lightly.

Kire stilled. "…From where I stand, I could much more easily do so to you," he pointed out. "But I won't, because I'm not here to hurt you, let alone kill you. I'm just here to learn about you."

Neji snorted quietly. In his world, knowledge was just as dangerous as an outright death—perhaps even more dangerous, considering that knowledge meant power to the enemy and danger to many allies whereas death was quick and hopefully singular.

Kire changed the subject. "So you're a 13-year-old ninja. If you're not a ninja-in-training, then why do you need a teacher?"

Neji would have rolled his eyes if he wasn't busy deciding if the true answer to this question would be dangerous for the man to know. If Kire knew about the team set-up, then he might go to extra lengths to prevent teammates from combining forces. Then again, Neji reminded himself that they were already trapped as it was. Neji had been the second-to-last person to fall to the darts (his Byakugan told him). Even if Naruto had escaped (and look at that, he beat Neji again), Neji thought it unlikely that the blonde could rescue them. They were probably deep in hostile territory right now. There was no way Naruto could get through a composed government system, no matter how good he was.

Keep it simple, then. "I'm a new ninja."

"Ah, I see. How old is 'new'?" Kire asked curiously. He still hadn't written anything down on his clipboard. It was currently residing under one of his crossed arms.

"I got my headband a little over a year ago."

"What makes your sensei deserving of the title?"

Neji opened his mouth to answer and then stopped with a glare at Kire. The man had almost made him explain about the ninja levels: genin, chunin, etc. Neji had become too comfortable.

"Because he's a powerful man," Neji answered instead.

"But he's not the white-haired man?"

"No."

"Is he the teacher of…" the man rustled through the papers on his clipboard, "Shikamaru?"

This man knew Shikamaru's name too? Did Shikamaru tell him? Neji had thought Nara was smarter than that. Lee hadn't given away their names, had he? No, this man didn't know Neji's name yet. However, Shikamaru had given his name to the dark-skinned man who attacked them…perhaps that man had told this one? They must be working together.

"No," Neji answered.

Kire must have realized that he wasn't going to get anything out of Neji with this line of questioning because he changed the subject again. Unfortunately, he chose the wrong subject.

"Why are your eyes completely white?"

It was at this point that Neji found it prudent to shut his mouth and imperiously ignore the rest of Kire's attempts at conversation. There was nothing more to be gained from continuing their interplay when Kire was obviously done with the "easy" questions. One valuable bit of information had been taken from the encounter, though: it proved that Kire and his "government" didn't know about the Byakugan, and Neji intended to keep it that way.

--

11:27 pm, Day 0, Complex D7, Third Level

Kire walked out of Neji's room with a sigh and began writing down the highlights of their conversation. He had thought he was finally getting somewhere. This was the first subject to actually provide him with a near-full conversation. The rest had been insanely weird (Lee), completely silent (the stoic A3 and angry A4), or too witty (Shikamaru). But the arrogant boy had clammed up as soon as Kire had asked about his eyes. Perhaps it was an uncomfortable subject, sort of like bringing up Ukire's mismatched eyes?

No…Kire was an expert at analyzing people, both innately and through training; he could tell that the boy had not been uncomfortable or insulted with Kire's line of questioning. His haughty look expressed that it was according to his own will that he ignored Kire. This suggested some form of planning. For whatever reason, the arrogant boy didn't want Kire to know anything about his eyes.

Kire wrote a few notes on this before checking the next window. He paused as he saw that the SR had been shuttled somewhere else. A quick check with the computer confirmed that A7 was currently in the Medical EA, and Kire remembered that A7 had been hit with a bullet in the course of his capture (even if a wound was never found). The Medics were probably checking to see if they could get any information on this strange occurance.

Kire skipped the empty place in the wall and looked through the window of A8, the fiery blonde girl whose mind did unusual things and who hadn't taken to Kire well.

Kire decided that he had already met her and skipped her SR. The next SR, of A9, was also gone. The computer said it was in the Physiology EA, and Kire's notes reminded him that Kerisu was still examining the boy's enzyme tattoo.

Finally, Kire came to an SR that was present and that contained an occupant that Kire wasn't afraid to confront: the SR of A10, the dog-looking boy.

_Perhaps the phrase 'afraid to confront' needs redefinition_, Kire thought as he walked into the room and immediately noticed the boy's sharp teeth and claws.

--

11:39 pm, Day 0, Complex D7, Subject Room of A10

Kiba was not known for his cool temper; quite the opposite, actually. When he got angry, it was with fiery insults and sharply gnashing teeth. This was one of those times. Waking up chained to an upright bed, his most recent memories being of a sharp prick to the neck in the midst of a battle, Kiba was seriously pissed off. He hadn't been this mad since he was seven and some girl had called his mother and sister "butch."

And after hours of hanging in an empty white room that smelled like disinfectant, a hidden door to the right opened. Kiba's nose was immediately assaulted by the strong artificial scent of cologne—which in his mind was just a polite way of saying "perfume for men." The scent was attached to a curly-haired man who walked in with a nervous gait. Kiba metaphorically pounced on the opportunity.

"Alright you bastard, where's Akamaru?" Kiba growled in the most menacing way possible, baring his canine fangs for good measure.

Perfume-man paused, a flicker of fear and uncertainty running over his face. Good; the idiot _should_ be afraid. No one tangled with an Inuzuka without bringing the whole pack down on them in retribution.

"Is Akamaru your dog?" perfume-man asked.

Kiba bristled angrily. He could hear in the man's tone how he was brushing off the importance of Akamaru, as if he were a common guard dog or household pet. "He's my partner, and if you've done anything to him, I swear you'll pay with your own blood," Kiba vowed viciously.

Perfume-man looked taken aback at the threat. He held his hands up in a placating manner, and Kiba finally noticed the clipboard he had. That was strange.

"Hey, no worries; your, er, partner—Akamaru, was it? Interesting name—he's perfectly safe and healthy. We've given him food and water aplenty. He's a cute dog; I had a pug when I was younger. Named her Sophie."

Kiba could hear the sincerity in the man's tone, but it didn't keep him from distrusting what was said. "Sophie?" Kiba asked jeeringly. "What kind of name is that?"

"It's European; my father is Italian born and bred. I used to visit there a lot as a kid, but I haven't been there in years. By the way, my name's Kire."

"Hmph. You smell like a girl," Kiba insulted him again. What else was he supposed to do? He was hanging here, virtually helpless, while Kire was standing there and talking as if nothing was wrong with the world, as if he wasn't holding Kiba and Akamaru and whoever else prisoner.

Oh God, _Hinata._ Had they caught her too? And Shino! Kiba remembered the prick of the needle in his neck before he fell unconscious. Even with his enhanced senses he couldn't dodge the speeding projectile. But Hinata had the Byakugan, and Shino had his bugs. Maybe she had managed to dodge and escape? Perhaps Shino had made a bug clone? They couldn't _all_ have been caught, could they?

"So, where am I? How'd I get here?" Kiba wished he could ask for food as well, but he wouldn't trust anything given to him here. It could easily be poisoned, or worse.

"Ah, I was wondering when you'd ask. You're currently under surveillance of the American government. We brought you here. I actually have a few questions of my own."

Kiba glared warily. "Yeah right, as if I'd answer anything you ask."

"Look, I know I probably seem like the bad guy here, but honestly, we're not going to do anything horrible to you guys—" Ahah! So the others were captured after all, at least some of them. "—so a little cooperation would be nice."

Kiba snorted. This guy was worst than a fresh Academy student. Even they knew not to trust pretty words—at least, the smart ones did. The rest…well, they usually didn't make it to shinobi ranks anyway. If they did, they were the first to die or betray the village when captured. Kiba would not be a traitor. His loyalty was one of his greatest strengths, carefully cultivated over generations and generations of Inuzukas and their canine partners. "You're smoking something if you think I'll give away any of my village or family secrets, Perfume-man."

Kire's eye twitched in annoyance at the name, and Kiba grinned proudly. So his barbs were finally getting to the man.

"That's fine," Kire said, sounding as though he was forcing himself to speak civilly—which he probably was. "You don't have to give any secrets away. We'll stick with simple things. So I hear you're a ninja?"

Was this guy seriously on crack? "Duh," Kiba said, and right after the word passed his mouth, he remembered that no one who had captured them had had chakra. Could it be that this man wasn't a ninja? Were there _any_ ninja here? Kiba didn't really know what a "dimension" was, but he definitely realized that this place was different from where he came from. The very air stank like a burning building, or…or a Blacksmith's shop. Yeah, like when the Smith was melting a particularly pungent metal, like copper. Kiba could gag just thinking about it.

Thankfully, that same smell was not present in this room. The strongest smell was whatever cologne the man was wearing. Under it were the scents of other people who had come and gone. Some of their smell was on him. Kiba blushed lightly when he realized that someone had undressed and redressed him into the white suit he now wore.

"Pedophiles," Kiba muttered.

Perfume-man apparently hadn't heard his last comment. "Yeah, I guess that's a given, huh? So you're what, twelve? Thirteen?"

Kiba eyed Kire warily. That 'guess' was eerily close. "Twelve," he answered shortly. Kire had opened his mouth to ask another question, but Kiba cut him off. "Hey, I asked two questions and you asked two questions, it's my turn now."

"Oh, so that's the way it'll work? Alright then; ask away."

"Fine, I will. Actually, you never answered my first questions. Where am I and where is Akamaru?"

"You're in a high-security facility, and Akamaru is here as well, in another room like yours."

"You mentioned the others—who do you mean?" Kiba tried to word his question carefully. He knew that at least some of the other shinobi had been captured, but he didn't know how many, and he didn't want to alert this man if any had managed to escape without notice.

"Let's see; there's twelve others besides you, I believe."

Kiba's hopes sank at hearing this. It seemed no one had managed to escape. "Are any of them hurt?" he asked next.

"Nope, everyone's fine, as far as I know. So, my turn, then. How do you manage not to bite your tongue with teeth like that?"

Kiba might have laughed if he wasn't feeling so dejected. "I'm used to it; my teeth have always been like this." Kiba shifted as much as he could in his restricted space and looked Perfume-man dead in the eye. "What do you plan on doing to us?"

Perfume-man suddenly looked sad. "Why do you all think we're such a threat? I mean, I guess the restraints don't exactly inspire confidence, but honestly, we're not about to start dissecting you for information."

"Then why not just let us go?!" Kiba asked, honestly confused and getting angry again. If these people weren't after clan or village secrets, then what could they possibly want with a rogue group of ninja?

"Because we still need to understand you. You and the other ninjas have strange things about you, things we've never seen before, and we have to know what they are, and more importantly, _why_ they are."

So he _was_ some sort of interrogator or spy. Either way, Kire was a direct threat to Kiba's family's secrets. If it meant keeping his family's honor, Kiba would ignore any threats posed to himself. There was nothing more to be said.

Kire seemed to sense his sudden resignation. "One more question, and then I'll leave. What's your name?"

Kiba looked at the man in surprise. His name? Inuzuka was known well enough to be catalogued. "I'm Kiba."

"Kiba. Heh, 'Fang.' How appropriate," Perfume-man said before giving a jaunty wave. "We'll talk again soon, Kiba."

Kire left, and Kiba once again found himself staring at a blank white wall. The only difference this time was that he knew there was an invisible door on one side, and that somewhere hopefully nearby, his friends, teammates, and partner were waiting. For now that thought would have to be enough. With so many ninja all piled into one place, there was only so long before one found a way to escape or at least cause some havoc. Kiba grinned. He hoped it was himself.

--

12:06 am, Day 1, Complex D7, Third Level

Kire found himself walking out of the room with a slight bounce to his step. That had been the best interview by far! While he had been slightly intimidated by the boy's appearance at the beginning, it turned out Kiba was more bark than bite. Though perhaps the bite would have been more pronounced had he not been chained down. Still, Kire felt he'd made at least a little headway with this subject. He took the time to write down all the important aspects of what Kiba had said while he checked the next room. Apparently, A11, the girl with white eyes, was in the Medical EA, probably having her heart checked. That scabbing business had sounded pretty nasty. The next room (Chouji's, his notes supplied) was also in the Medical EA for observation. That left only one room, that of A13, the pink-haired girl.

_This should be good,_ Kire thought sarcastically to suppress his worry at the sight of the ill-looking girl.

--

12:22 am, Day 1, Complex D7, Subject Room of A13

Sakura was scared out of her mind.

Immediately post-ceding the Chuunin Exam, portions I and II, the library had had a frequent visitor in the form of Sakura. The Chuunin Preliminaries failure had searched frantically for all the information available on one Orochimaru, also known as the snake Sannin and traitor of Konoha. The information on his attempted arrest and subsequent desertion was kept buried in the public records under mounds of other paperwork. Sakura had put her keen intellect and determination to use and managed to find all the right loopholes in order to view the records of what Orochimaru's crimes had been. What she had dug up was not pretty at all: horrific descriptions of human experimentation gone awry, manipulation of children into murdering machines (which, in a ninja's mind, was different than a _killing_ machine, namely themselves), and many other disturbing endeavors.

Some of the accounts had been written by the surviving victims themselves (and, as Sakura discovered, these were precious few). These had perhaps been the most disturbing to Sakura's young mind because it forced her to realize that there were people out there who had lived through these nightmares. Intellectually, Sakura had known that there was evil in the world and that it did touch people, but…it had never been anyone _she _had known. Reading the eye-witness reports and thinking about the situation with Sasuke had been like a slap in the face. What if _Sasuke_ was one of Orochimaru's experiments? Sakura hadn't slept a wink the first night after she'd had this thought.

But what was truly frightening her at this moment, about this situation, was that the eye-witness accounts she had read were matching up quite squarely with what her own eyes were seeing. She was pinned to a vertical bed with thick metal bands, not even able to move her head or fingers, and all around her was a vague, flat white. For hours now she had merely stared, wide-eyed, at the wall. Sweat bourn of fear trickled down her neck and filled the room with the smell of terror. It hung thick in the air, clouding her mind. Her state was almost identical to what happened when Orochimaru had turned his Killing Intent on her in the Forest of Death. So it was no wonder that when a hidden door on the right opened inward, Sakura immediately closed her eyes, not wishing to see the hideously inhuman yellow eyes that she remembered from her single encounter with Orochimaru.

Sakura heard a couple footsteps (which was odd in itself, as shinobi usually moved silently unless they were trying to make a point. However, her terrorized mind didn't dwell on the particulars—it seemed like something the sick man would do anyway) before the door closed, and then there was silence. Sakura trembled in place, not daring to make a sound.

The door opened again. The foot steps sounded again. The door closed. Sakura's eyes flew open, immediately darting to the door, and then she froze.

Staring back at her, with curiosity and sympathy clear on his face, was a man. His hand was on the door handle, but Sakura wasn't paying attention to this. The first thing she noticed were the similarities between this man and Orochimaru—a thin face and tall, slinky build—and her heart raced in her chest. But then it calmed as she fully took in the many differences: this man had short, curly brown hair, large forest green eyes, and dimples from smiling too much. Sakura relaxed a little, now evaluating the man's dress. He wore a white overcoat, and she could see black pants and shoes sticking out the bottom. The collar of a dress shirt poked out from the top of the coat.

The man suddenly cleared his throat, hand hiding a smile. "Hello," he said pleasantly. "My name's Kire, what's yours?"

Sakura blinked. "Oh, um, uh…" Should she answer? This "Kire" may not be Orochimaru, but it was possible he worked for him, just like that back-stabber Kabuto. "My name's…Yuki. Yeah, Yuki. Eheh," she laughed nervously.

He paused and jotted something down on the clipboard he had. Was he taking notes? "I see. That's a nice name. I have a friend named Suki and her eyes look a lot like yours, very pretty."

Sakura couldn't help a flustered blush. No one had ever said her eyes were pretty before. The only thing people seemed to notice was that her forehead was too big. If anything about her appearance was ever mentioned, it was that.

Kire smiled kindly at her, discretely jotting another note down. "You also have very interesting hair. Does your mother or father have the same color?"

"Um, um." Was this Kire a mad scientist like Orochimaru? Wild possibilities ran through her mind: did he want to know about her parents' hair because he was planning on trying to copy the gene for it, or see if there was any more resilience in pink-haired people than people with other kinds of hair color, or some other diabolical mad scientist gig? It sounded like some experiments Orochimaru had performed. That would mean he was after her parents. "I don't know. They, er, died when I was young."

Kire nodded slowly and offered his sympathies. This time he didn't write anything down on his paper. Instead he clasped his hands, with the clipboard in them, behind his back and smiled.

"Does the name Rock Lee mean anything to you?"

A thrill of fear ran through Sakura. They had the others too! Two wells of emotion brewed inside of her: one of guilt for being useless yet again in a mission, and one of secret relief that she hadn't been the only liability. Rock Lee was strong, much stronger than her, and yet he had been caught as well.

"No," she answered, not wanting this man to connect anyone to her if he was planning some weird experiments. Sakura couldn't imagine what the importance of her hair color might be, but if the strange man was asking, she could only take it as a warning sign. The reports on Orochimaru were far too like this.

He nodded pleasantly. "Alright then. Have a good night."

_It's night already?_ Sakura thought as Kire turned to leave. Wow, had she slept through the entire day? Or had the dragging time of when she'd been paralyzed by fear been longer than she'd thought? It had felt like an eternity already.

Sakura released a breath of relief when the door closed behind Kire. Now she began puzzling over her options. Right now she was merely relying on lying to keep her secrets, but that might not hold up against torture. Sakura knew she wasn't strong enough to be resilient to true torture if she went into a fear-frozen state just thinking about Orochimaru's experimentation. Torture chambers were far worse from what she'd read: torture experts were actually trying to make you feel pain, whereas scientists merely did what was needed to get their experiments done. Of course, the reports on Orochimaru suggested that he was some combination of the two.

Sakura sighed and hoped that this scientist wasn't the same as Orochimaru, though her hopes weren't high.

--

12:30 am, Day 1, Complex D7, Third Level

Kire left the room with a short eye-roll, a little disappointed by the obvious lies the pink-haired girl had told. But the poor thing had seemed rather distressed, so he hadn't pushed.

He tapped his pen on his notes as he made his way to the Psychology Experimentation Area, reading them over to be certain he hadn't forgotten anything. Then he went to the nearest computer and began entering the information he'd managed to obtain into the database and updating it. He idly wondered when he'd be able to speak to subjects A2 and A12, who had both yet to wake up, A11, the white-eyed girl with the scarred heart, A9, the boy with a dangerous enzyme tattoo, and A7, the blond who, rumor had it, had driven Shia into her bad temper earlier that day.

_Yesterday_, Kire corrected himself as he glanced at his watch. He fought back a yawn as he finished entering the information and then trudged back up the stairs to head to bed.

--

Bikenu Shia: Main Head

Mante Raifu: Head of Technology

Vinlo Kerisu: Head of Physiology; Experts: Masayo Shota

Enmaro Kire: Head of Psychology; Experts: Setano Suki

Minamo Ukire: Head Medic; Experts: Derubi Akane, Kamara Jiru

Subjects/Shinobi: A1—Lee, A2—Kakashi, A3—Shino, A4—Tenten, A5—Shikamaru, A6—Neji, A7—Naruto, A8—Ino, A9—Sasuke, A10—Kiba, A11—Hinata, A12—Chouji, A13—Sakura.

**Announcement: I have officially ABANDONED this story. For more details, see my profile.**

Sadly, there will not be a next chapter, so unless I see you in another story: farewell.

-Itallia


	6. Outline

AN:

First of all, I apologize once again for abandoning this story. It fills me with enormous guilt, I assure you, but the original spark just isn't there.

Second, I have to apologize again, this time for how long it took me to upload an outline of the story. Though, in my defense, I did say that I only _might_ do so.

Third, if anyone still has questions after the following explanations and summaries, then feel free to review the story or PM me. I will try to answer questions, and if they hit a relevant point that I neglected to mention, then I will edit them into the context of this chapter. All edits will be dated so that people don't have to read the whole thing again to find the new stuff, if they feel so inclined.

Fourth, please thank Brian B for this outline: without his questions I wouldn't have found the inspiration to type it all up, and my large pile of post-its would still exist.

And lastly, I do not pretend that this is a work of art: the tense changes quite a few times, there are grammar mistakes galore, and perhaps a bit more sarcastic humor than I meant to include. I at least tried to order things into a table of contents to make them easier to find. Also, I am no professional. This is all sci-fi-ish at best.

Thank you for your interest in the story, and happy readings!

-Itallia

_**Humane Studies Notes**_

Contents in Brief:

**A. Basic Story Plot**

1. Shino's Dilemma

2. The Game

3. DNA Testing

4. The Scanner

5. Therapy

6. Portal

7. The End

**B. Chakra Explanations**

1. Basic Chakra

2. Specific Examples

3. Spiritual and Physical

4. Bloodlines

5. Kyuubi and Kimimaru

**C. Shinobi Profiles**

Subject A1: Rock Lee

Subject A2: Hatake Kakashi

Subject A3: Aburame Shino

Subject A4: Tenten

Subject A5: Nara Shikamaru

Subject A6: Hyuuga Neji

Subject A7: Uzumaki Naruto

Subject A8: Yamanaka Ino

Subject A9: Uchiha Sasuke

Subject A10: Inuzuka Kiba

Subject A11: Hyuuga Hinata

Subject A12: Akimichi Chouji

Subject A13: Haruno Sakura

**A.** **Basic Story Plot**

I had planned for several key events to happen while the shinobi were under the scientists' tender mercy.

1. Shino's Dilemma

The next chapter was supposed to be the start of Shino's rapid and alarming health decline. The "uncomfortable warmth" he felt in Interviews was fever. But Shino has never been sick before: his bugs protect him from all manner of germs and bacterium. Without them, his immune system is intensely weak—he'll basically catch anything, and then be very slow and inexperienced in fighting it. So the scientists freak out about this for a while. Eventually they realize what's happening when the bugs start dying as well (no food, they need chakra). Shia releases the bugs into Shino's room, hoping to set things to rights.

Shino gets better and his bugs feast, and then as soon as someone else opens the door, they pour out on Shino's command and flood the center. Since the scientists have no chakra, the bugs can't really _do_ anything to them (except freak out a few personnel; the screams will ring), this throws things into chaos. Shia performs a scan for chakra sources in the building, and in that way pinpoints most of the bugs. A few clever ones hide near larger sources of chakra—a few of the other shinobi, the Atom Splitter device, etc. The Tech team devises a way to contain Shino and his bugs together in a way that would allow the scientists to visit him still. It involves a little room that separates Shino's SR from the main hall, and threats to his bugs' welfare. He, naturally, complies with the whole thing, and gets a few spies out in the main area as a bonus.

2. The Game

After everyone got settled in and the scientists were done exclaiming about the various unique qualities of their subjects, I had planned for Raifu, Head of Technology, to excitedly finish his "pet project." This would be a device that simulates environment, much like a virtual reality game. The scientists would then put the shinobi into this "game" in an attempt to learn more about their abilities.

The game works by interpreting neuronal messages in the brain and changing circumstances according to the players expectations. This means that if you are walking down the street expecting a dog to attack you, it will happen (unlike in real life, where you may be wrong). For the shinobi, this means that if they expect their shuriken to cut through steel, it will do so. Every good shinobi knows his or her own abilities, so nothing happens without the shinobi expecting it in this game. Except (of course there's an exception) for the basic override system that Raifu installed. With this, he can control (to some extent) the NPCs (for non-gamers, this is Non Player Characters), which in this case means the scientists. The setting Raifu creates is exactly how the shinobi are in real life—in their individual rooms, bolted down. They place the gear on while the shinobi are asleep, so when our beloved ninjas wake up and begin their various escape plans, expecting them to work, they _do_ work. Except, of course, that it's only in the game. I had planned to do all this in a way that you, the reader, would not realize that it's all fake unless you correctly interpreted the scientists' cryptic remarks about the game and the various little hints you'd receive from the shinobi POVs, or until we finally switch from the shinobi POVs back to the scientists, who had been watching their rampage in horrified fascination on television screens.

The escape and attack rule is especially true for Kakashi, who finally comes out of his mild coma while under the game's influence. He is a bit enraged that the chakra for his genjutsu mask ran out while he was asleep, his sharingan eyeball hurts, and it's the first time he's ever been captured by enemies. He's _pissed_ (Kakashi style), and not just at his captors: he's also upset with the younger ninja, most notably Shikamaru, since he put the guy in charge and he's the only chunin among them. So he escapes, casually slaughtering various scientist personnel on the way, and begins the arduous task of rescuing everyone.

Eventually, the scientists tire of seeing themselves be killed and turn off the game. Cue ninja rage at finding out that a "very powerful genjutsu" had gotten their hopes for escape up. Thankfully, it was not all for naught: the scientists now understand not only some of the shinobi abilities better (or at least how they interpret their own abilities and each others'), but they understand what exactly the shinobi will do if they escape. Tensions between scientist and subject or, not surprisingly, high. An interesting exception to the general "kill/knock out/maim and run" rule is Shino, who has been watching the scientists through his bugs and is slowly realizing that they're not truly "evil"—they're not even out to harm the ninjas. So while he's not exactly sociable with them, he's more inclined to merely run away from them instead of attacking.

This game would be employed at least the once, perhaps more.

3. DNA Testing

After the first virtual reality experience, the genome testing results would come in. Insert scientists' geeky squees. For more information, see Shinobi Profiles.

4. The Scanner

The chakra scanner that Raifu was making will be completed and with it the scientists will be able to pinpoint specific chakra hot-spots on the bodies of the shinobi. Some examples would be Sasuke, Neji, and Hinata's eyes, Naruto's seal, and Ino's brain.

5. Therapy

Kire, Head of Psychology, would set up a schedule for "therapy" sessions with the ninjas who need it. Many things would be addressed during this, such as relationships between the shinobi and their pasts and home lives. For more information, see Shinobi Profiles. To do these sessions safely (for the scientists), they use a variation on the virtual reality game. The therapist and ninja enter a private world with the gear and can talk that way without physical threat to either of them. Several of the therapists and ninjas would become close in these discussions, or at least learn a bit about each other. The therapy sessions were to be a very big part of the story, and the place where the most character development happens. For more information, see Shinobi Profiles, subsection "Psychology."

6. Portal

The scientists would eventually understand Kakashi's Sharingan enough to duplicate his portal-opening abilities. After some technicalities (tracing electronegative signals and whatnot), they would eventually create a machine that opens a portal back to the Naruto universe. This is important for the next part, The End. Read on, please.

7. The End

The end of the story is rather complicated. The beginning of the end starts with Mr. Dover, the boss of bosses, telling Shia that they are transferring this experiment to another group and that she and her team will be sent back to Japan. Reason stated for this change: he has monitored their progress and decided that some of them have become too attached for their own good. The monitoring would have been done by a spy in their ranks, one of the "helpers" who is bitter about her lower place in the hierarchy.

Of course, it's entirely true: Shia and the rest of the scientists will have become rather attached to their strange subjects. And so Shia would argue with herself for a while, have a short moral and philosophical dilemma, and then make a decision and plan carefully with Shikamaru and the other shinobi. The shinobi would be doubtful at first, but after prompting from Shino, who's been learning of their essentially good intentions, and Shia's manipulations ("Would you rather stay here forever?"), they agree to the plan. When the new team arrives to take over, she would stage an elaborate scene that allows the shinobi to escape, using the portal to go back to their world, and then make it look like it was all her idea and the others involved were merely following her express orders, as they are supposed to do. Mr. Dover would arrive in person as she explains this and she would be particularly smug in forcing his hand, because she would have done all this in such a way that it becomes difficult to simply kill or arrest them all without looking like a tyrant. After all, this is America, home of justice and all that good stuff, and Mr. Dover has to keep up appearances in front of the new team who came to replace them, or bad word would get out and he would be demoted or worse. After all, he still has a boss to answer to: the American government that pays him.

And so everything would go as the scientists planned (of course the others were in on it!): Shia alone would go to jail, the shinobi would be sent home without a way to trace them back, and the rest of the team would merely get laid off/fired for incompetency or whatever excuse Mr. Dover comes up with. There would be a short scene to wrap up the fate of the scientists: Shia in a prison cell at the point of time when several of the other scientists break in and help her escape. She'd make some comment about it taking long enough, ask where they're going now; someone would suggest Fiji, someone else would suggest rebuilding the portal machine and finding a completely new world, etc. The scientists would leave the gaping inmates chatting in this strain.

Back in the Naruto universe, everyone would of course report to Tsunade and explain what happened. (No time will have passed since their leaving, which means that there are enraged Akatsuki members out in the forest somewhere.) Then they'd all start their various "make myself better" campaigns, and things would go back to normal. For more information, see Shinobi Profiles.

And that would be the ending!

**B. Chakra Explanations**

1. Basic Chakra

As already explained in the story, chakra is the energy that results from radioactive decay after the splitting of an atom. The specific atoms that are split are particles of condensed ATP energy, otherwise known as heavy particles. These are split and the resulting decay energy is stored as chakra. The bodies of people from the Naruto universe are born with the ability to do this split and then break down the energy. The chakra can then be used for virtually any purpose as long as the proper manipulations are made to it. As science will tell us, matter can be made by smashing enough energy together—this would be how you would create physical things from matter, like Naruto's Kage Bunshins or something as simple as water. Energy can also alter forms, so fire and lightning, etc, are also possible. The Naruto hand signs are rather like directions for the energy in the same way that moving a certain muscle in your arm is necessary to move a muscle in your finger.

I had planned for there to be a special, unique compartment in the brains of the Naruto characters that is the mental center of chakra control. Chakra, to them, probably feels something like a fifth limb or a sixth sense—though, like any muscle, it has to be exercised to function properly. I had also planned for there to be a critical period to learning chakra control—if it's not started within a certain age range (the ninja academy age), then the ability to control and increase chakra potential will be lost. (Fun Fact: Humans have a critical period for learning how to speak that's somewhere around age 2.)

The splitting of an atom and subsequent energy processing would happen in each cell. As we know, splitting an atom causes a massive release of energy—the whole ability of chakra creation lies in _not_ creating an explosion, and instead taking that energy and filtering it down to chakra. Shinobi actually get very little chakra, comparatively, from each atom split. Each cell stores the chakra it makes, but there is naturally a limit per cell. This limit can be stretched and increased with practice, which then increases chakra potential. If the limit is exceeded, the excess chakra will leak out. Without this ability to leak, the extra particles will lyse the cell.

2. Specific Examples

As described in section 1, this cell lysing is what happens with Chouji and his clan when they use pills to artificially enhance their chakra output. The pills increase chakra control to the point that it prevents the chakra from leaving the cells without a mental command, and so the cell lyses. Normally, the chakra would leak out on its own when there was too much build-up (like what happens to Naruto when he releases chakra uncontrollably—it's because he's making too much to hold it all with his current capacity, and he doesn't have enough control to keep it in.) So, by taking the belt off of Chouji, Shia released the chakra that had, without an outlet, been building in his body. In his unconsciousness, he was trying to release the chakra when it got to dangerous levels, but the belt prevented this.

I had also planned for regular blue chakra to be a different type of radioactive decay than Kyuubi's red chakra. Alpha and beta are much more harmful to humans, so I was thinking that Kyuubi's would probably be this type and thus the reason it eats at Naruto's body if it lingers on him too long.

Now, it takes time to process chakra from the split of heavy particles, meaning it takes time for chakra stores to "refill." Naruto has abilities from Kyuubi to do this extremely fast. Sasuke's cursed seal allows him to do it faster than normal as well. Chouji's family makes more energy instantaneously by transferring body fat into energy.

3. Spiritual and Physical

The whole "chakra is a combining of spiritual and physical energies" thing is the shinobi explanation for "your individual capacity and body have to work in tandem for this to happen." By that I mean that your body will do all the work of splitting atoms unconsciously, but your ability to do it is based on your natural abilities, your spirit. This is why Sakura has lower chakra potential than Sasuke or Naruto: she is not genetically disposed to being a high chakra-output person, whereas Sasuke and Naruto are. Therefore, chakra is a combination of spiritual (genetic) and physical "energies."

4. Bloodlines

Clan Bloodline traits, like the Sharingan and Byakugan: what are they? Quite simply, they are the genetic work of a clan ancestor. A ninja can create a bloodline trait by going into their DNA and permanently manipulating their genetic code. The specific way it is manipulated will create the different results. It's a very complex process, with a high chance for failure and subsequent death or hideous mutation, and so is not done very often. But when done correctly, it can be passed down like normal genes (with some extra restrictions and rules), and so can become a bloodline trait.

5. Kyuubi and Kimimaru

Brian B said:

"I thought of Kabuto trying to cure Kimimaro's lung disease using transfered portions of Kyuubi's chakra from Naruto to slowly dissolve the corrupted tissue(If his lungs where what was actually wrong with him)."

My response:

The Kyuubi's chakra, if you could direct it like a laser, would be able to kill the bad cells in Kimimaro's lungs. The problem is that I don't think you could direct it like a laser, and there may be unforeseen complications with radioactive spread. Not to mention you might also have to cut the dead cells out afterwards and/or regrow the lost tissue, and that would create the same problem that Naruto and Tsunade face: shorter life spans of those cells. Each time a cell multiplies it runs the high risk of slight mutations in the genetic code. Thanks to this, our cells age, so we age. Since the rapid healing Naruto and Tsunade undergo causes their cells to multiply exponentially, the mutations build up fast and shorten the life span of the cells, and by proxy the life span of the person. Kimimaro would have this problem as well unless he got tissue transfer instead of tissue regrowth.

**C. Shinobi Profiles**

Subject A1: Rock Lee

Lee has almost no chakra because his "spirit" (genetic component) didn't dispose him to have much (see Chakra Explanations: Spiritual and Physical). Most of his abilities were already explained in the story already: chakra in the suit the Gai gave him keeps his cells from being harmed in the compacting process. It helps his body accept the changes. The chakra gates are rather like Naruto using Kyuubi: it's a sudden chakra potential epiphany—or, in other words, a sudden splitting of many atoms and therefore great increase in chakra output (and I mean a lot). It also involves a component of tricking the body into believing it's fine when it's not, rather like pain-killers. It's really akin to an adrenaline rush.

Psychology: Lee would throw the psychologists off for a while as well as stir many betting pools. Some would bet that he has a form of autism, others that he's just faking it, some that he has a mild form of mental retardation, and still others that he's bipolar. Eventually, it would be revealed that Lee is just a very, very optimistic person because he can't stand to think negative thoughts. Lee respects Gai because Gai is also very optimistic and real, just like Lee wants to be. After meeting Gai, Lee developed a strong desire to try his hardest to overcome his chakra disability through taijutsu. It would eventually be found that Lee is afraid to try new things not pertaining to his current taijutsu because he is afraid of failing, just like he did with ninjutsu and genjutsu. The therapy sessions would help him get over this fear enough so that when the shinobi return to Konoha, Lee asks Tenten to tutor him in weaponry.

Subject A2: Hatake Kakashi

Kakashi's reappearing mask act is a genjutsu. Though he is unconscious and has the chakra restraining belt on, the chakra line to his mask has already been set up in a constant flow. It would only falter after several days under the belt. The reason he can't use the Sharingan to its full potential is because he only has the eye and not any of the proper mental capacity to make it fully functional. Also, Kakashi's chakra wasn't made to make the switch between regular eye and Sharingan because he doesn't have the other Uchiha genetic components, so there's a permanent chakra connection to his eye. When it is not being used the chakra lies dormant and the Sharingan is blind, but while it is in use the pathway becomes active. That's why he has to cover it up: it would eat up his chakra. That's also why it doesn't disappear under the belt. Kakashi's silver/white hair is just an extra hair color that we don't have in our genetic codes in this world.

Psychology: As Kakashi is older and more experienced, the scientists wouldn't have gotten anything out of him--they wouldn't be able to draw up a profile because he simply wouldn't speak. If I were to personally give him a profile, I would say he probably has huge trust issues and learned from an early point in life that nothing lasts very long, esp. people, so it's better not to get too attached. He reads Icha Icha because he's trying to prevent himself from thinking too much, but he feels a certain compulsion to visit and honor the memorial stone in memory of the people he did know. His reason for lateness and laid-backness: partly as another way to prove to himself that he doesn't care about anything, but partly as a way to keep the memory of his fallen teammate, Obito, alive.

Subject A3: Aburame Shino

Shino has a symbiotic, mutualistic relationship with his bugs. The scientists compare his relationship to his bugs with the relationship that some ants have with fungus. The ants grow the fungus in their hills, feeding it and cultivating it, and then eat parts of it as their own food source (eating without killing). So in Shino, his bugs provide protection and obey his commands, he provides food and shelter. Since the bugs are put in Aburames from birth (with a few genetic manipulations to accommodate them), Shino's immune system would be very sketchy without his bugs present. His bugs are distantly related to the beetle family, but their digestive tract would be like nothing ever seen before. Their bodies are porous because they absorb and eat chakra directly through the skin, like frogs breathe through their skin.

Shino, ironically, would wind up having one of the best understandings of the scientists, and be the first to accept their help (see Basic Story Plot: The End).

Psychology: Shino would be rather a mystery for the scientists. He would have a strange point of view of the world because he communes with his bugs so often. He respects power and ability, but he also respects strength of character a lot because he doesn't feel he has a very strong personality. This is why he respects Naruto so much. As the scientists know how important Shino's bugs are to him, and taking them away would be the only way to get him on the path to "normality," they don't feel they're much they can do.

Subject A4: Tenten

Tenten would have been found to have a mild eye bloodline—a mild genetic change to her eyes that helps with depth perception and visuo-spatial skills, which explains her aiming accuracy.

Psychology: Tenten would have a very strong sense of self and ability. She would not allow the scientists to try to talk her into branching into areas outside of weaponry because she feels it is her strongest point and therefore the point she wants to focus on. She, like Lee, would have a certain fear of failure because she believes, like Neji, that there are some things you just can't control. Facing these issues would give her a connection to her teammates that would make their whole team work better together when they return to Konoha, and Tenten would trade weaponry lessons with Lee for lessons in Taijutsu (and they get to have a gushy teammate dialogue scene).

Subject A5: Nara Shikamaru

Shikamaru's shadow manipulation is merely a jutsu that his family created, and which they guard jealously. Anyone could learn it.

Psychology: Shikamaru would be discovered to be a genius and most of his laziness would be chalked up to boredom. A small part of his laziness would be explained by his mother's insistence on action throughout his life, and a slight mimicry of his father's laziness. Shia would take over his psychological therapy lessons and they would usually just play a game of shogi while playing word games with each other, trying to see what information they could trick out of the other. This would lead to a respect/hate relationship between them. The winner of the shogi games would always be Shikamaru, but he won't win all the verbal games.

Subject A6: Hyuuga Neji

The Byakugan is a result of genetic manipulations done by ancestors (see Chakra Explanations: Bloodlines).

Brian B asked:

"In the case of the Byakugan, I can see how it is very similar to the Sharingan and the recessive genes coming into play to activate it (see Subject A9: Uchiha Sasuke). But, how would you explain the near 360 degree vision without the eyes being on the sides of their heads like a spider or fish? I think I remember somewhere that mice or gerbils or some type of rodent can see almost all the way behind them even with their eyes being forward but the sight in their immediate front is hampered because of it. The loss of eyesight in the Byakugan is just above the vertebra with only a few degrees loss of sight at that. Now, in the anime, when activated all color is grayed, leading me to believe that their eyes no longer capture light but use some kind of x-ray echo location thing? X-ray is the only type of gray vision I can think of at the moment. I say echo location because x-rays still go in a straight line like light (right?) so the eyes would need a way to capture information from all around. Unless the eyes shoot the x-rays themselves, but wouldn't that develop cancer in their brains?"

My Response:

I'll admit that you thought about the Byakugan a lot more that I did. I kind of cheaped out on really complex explanations like that by going with the end-all answer: chakra can do anything if used correctly. It would be a manipulation of the chakra in the eyes that allows the Sharingan and the Byakugan to do exactly what it does. If you want to get more technical, like with your rodents, you could say that the changes to the genes (when it goes to recessive) are like nothing ever seen: those specific genes are completely unique. And they should be: they were made by someone's chakra. So they can do completely unique things, like have near 360 degree vision even though the eyes are in the front. I wasn't planning on getting really technical, but your x-ray vision explanation works well. And since x-rays use a type of decay energy, you could say that one of the alterations to Hyuugas is an immunity to that type of radioactive decay, so they wouldn't be harmed by it and could therefore shoot both shoot and receive it in the eyes. Oh, and x-rays and light doesn't _exactly_ travel in a straight line—no particle does, because particles are always moving (we have not reached absolute zero yet!), but it's basically a straight line.

Psychology: Neji would be found to have an "external focus of control"--that is, he believes that an outside force controls the current of events in life, not your own actions. This viewpoint, as the psychologists would find out, has been undergoing a radical change of recent, thanks to Naruto. Neji's mind would still be on the tilt, trying to decide if he should believe what he has always believed or allow new evidence to change those beliefs. The scientists would be scrambling to allow him to make his own decision while keeping him hopeful for the future. Neji would be the closest to being considered suicidal. In the end, he would side with Naruto's point of view and find life easier to deal with afterwards, though he'd certainly have relapses into his old way of thinking.

Subject A7: Uzumaki Naruto

Naruto's abilities are explained earlier in Chakra Explanations: Specific Examples.

Kyuubi's store of chakra would be a separate, unique place in Naruto's body (not like normal chakra, which is dispersed fairly evenly throughout all the living cells in the body). It would be centered around the seal, but the seal would be something like a dimensional gateway (in the same family as the kind that Kakashi opened to bring them to our world). Depending on how closely Naruto is connected with the Kyuubi, the Kyuubi's chakra will appear and disappear in scannings. This will completely throw off the scientists. As with most chakra-related things, the seal reacts not only to Naruto's wishes but also to his emotions. Its strength in the beginning relied on the strength of will of the creator (the Fourth), but after a while that will begin to weaken and the seal would follow it. The Fourth would have pre-programmed the seal so that it would, after a certain amount of deterioration, alter so that its strength was linked to Naruto's will. His will to keep the Kyuubi imprisoned, or let him out, would then be the deciding factor in the seal's strength. This would explain why Naruto seems to have a harder and harder time suppressing the Kyuubi, and why it becomes harder to deny the more he uses it. This is also the area I have taken the most liberty in, esp. considering that I haven't kept up with new developments in the series. I've watched hardly any of Shippuden, though I've heard interesting things about it.

As a side note, some measurements and estimates I did based on a few episodes in the show lead me to guesstimate that Naruto has 10.8 times as much chakra as Sakura, 9 times as much as Sasuke, and 5 times as much as Kakashi—and all of that without the Kyuubi's influence. This is based on how many times Sasuke and Kakashi can do the Chidori in a day, and the chakra meter shown in one episode (I forget which; it's when Jiraiya starts training him, I think) that compares the amount of chakra Naruto uses to get the same results with bunshin as Sakura and Sasuke.

Psychology: Naruto would have a number of issues that the scientists would eventually realize were mislearned life lessons. As Naruto had no parents or guardians to teach him things, he would have a skewered point of view on many things. This would explain things like his blatant, unrepentant use of the Sexy no Jutsu, horrible eating habits, lack of an "indoor voice," and tendency to insult people through lack of tact. He would probably have a deep-seated desire for family and recognition, which is why he is so obsessed with keeping Sasuke, his first male friend his own age, around, why he is likewise obsessed with protecting his precious people, and why he wants to become Hokage (though part of the reason for that is also because he highly honors the third Hokage, who was the first person to show him kindness). For all his faults, Naruto would rate high on resiliency.

Subject A8: Yamanaka Ino

Ino's family manipulated their genetic codes. They have the ability to control their brain waves to an advanced extent, and to broadcast said brain waves (which usually remain in the brain) out of the body and into another body. When the seal to do the mind transfer/possession is used, Yamanakas can force their minds to be working with alpha, beta, and theta brain waves all in tandem, which are then sent out of the body and into the host brain. This leaves only delta brain waves (also known as deep sleep brain waves) in the Yamanaka mind, which is why they collapse unconscious. There would be an extra brain part to handle these complications, or at least more brain activity in certain parts of the brain: either way, Ino's CAT scans would show up different than mine or yours, or any of the other ninjas.

Psychology: Ino would get the general teenage girl talk—respect yourself, stop chasing after boys, etc. For more detail, see Shinobi Profiles: Haruno Sakura, subsection "Psychology."

Subject A9: Uchiha Sasuke

As outlined in Chakra Explanations: Bloodlines, Sasuke's Sharingan is a manipulation of his genetics.

To explain what is happening when Sasuke's eyes change from normal to Sharingan, and how it's inherited, here is a small excerpt that I had planned on having one of the scientists say: "It's as if the dominant trait is the one we see on the outside, but chakra can go into the DNA and _change_ the phenotype to the recessive, which would be the red eye—except that when genes are passed on, the red is always delegated to recessive and has to be paired with a dominant. Two recessive just isn't possible. It might be sex-linked so that one gender passes on the dominant trait and the other passes on the recessive. Or it could be that anyone who ends up with two recessive traits is naturally aborted."

The Sharingan's mimicry of other techniques (to the point that it seems like they're reading your mind) is explained by the idea that the Sharingan works at speeds faster than light. Everything we see is only an afterimage, even if it is near-instantaneous. Those few pico-seconds it takes for the light to travel from point A (opponent) to point B (Sharingan user) would not exist when the Sharingan is active (it functions on a different plane than light, most likely dark matter), so the user would see the opponent's movement in real time and mimic it fast enough for it to look like they know what the other person is going to do before they do it. Uchihas would probably also have to manipulate the speed of the light when it goes back to the opponent (slowing it down) and speed their own reaction time. [Normal reaction time in humans is 1/4 of a second or so.] The actual copying is merely a mimicry of the hand seals and chakra output, facilitated by the speedy capabilities of the Sharingan. Anyone can do this, technically, if they can see chakra and watch the sequence of hand seals in a technique. It's just that the Sharingan allows Sasuke to do so on the spot instead of a gradual learning process.

The cursed seal on Sasuke's shoulder is a composite of foreign enzymes. Enzymes are catalysts for reactions (they don't alter the direction of chemical equilibrium; they merely speed up the reaction), and the ones in the cursed seal have a two-part purpose. 1. To speed up the splitting of atoms and subsequent energy regulation. (This is unhealthy for the body because it tires and injures the body with too much chakra.) 2. To alter the DNA in the surrounding cells so that they will most fully accept the enzymes. This alteration is what causes Sasuke's physical changes, and is painful and unhealthy since it messes amateur-ly with genetics (which can have serious repercussions). Thanks to a careful set up with chakra, the enzymes react to Sasuke's emotions and mentality, and Orochimaru, as the progenitor, can also cause a stir in them.

Psychology: As you probably guessed, Sasuke would be found to have serious psychological issues. He has trust issues and paranoia issues bordering on schizoid/paranoid personality disorder. But his drive and ambition to kill his brother would point more towards antisocial personality disorder. He would also be found to be asexual, though whether it's a symptom of a personality disorder of just his orientation would be unclear. Due to all of this, he would go under the heaviest therapy, and have the least success in bettering himself. On a positive note, when they return to Konoha, he would be affected by the changes the other characters undergo: he might respect some of their attempts to better themselves, and a bit of respect for his village and fellow shinobi is just what he needs.

Subject A10: Inuzuka Kiba

Kiba's genetic code would have come back with some dog genes (see Chakra Explanations: Bloodlines). This is fairly obvious to anyone who looks at him. Akamaru's genes, likewise, would have come back with some human genes, explaining his abnormal intelligence.

Psychology: Kiba would be found to be psychologically healthy, if a bit overly-competitive.

Subject A11: Hyuuga Hinata

The Byakugan is a result of genetic manipulations done by ancestors (see Chakra Explanations: Bloodlines). For more information on the Byakugan's specific mechanics, see Subject A6: Hyuuga Neji. Hinata's heart was healed with chakra, but it was done incompletely. This is why there is no surgery scarring and why her heart still acts up. In the course of the story, I had planned for the Medical team to do proper open heart surgery on her and so she would come back to Konoha good as new.

Psychology: Hinata's shyness would be blamed partly on personality, partly on losing her mother when she was young, partly on having a talented sister and cousin around her when she was growing up, and partly because of her father's strictness. Other than this shyness, which the psychologists would work on through various social exercises, she would be psychologically healthy.

Subject A12: Akimichi Chouji

For Chouji's chakra abilities, see Chakra Explanations: Specific Examples.

Psychology: Chouji would be found to have an insecurity about his weight, and a general fear that everyone will dislike him for it. This would clash with the ideas and pride that his parents raised him with: that his clan is supposed to be overweight for their pills to work and their true power to be known. It would be a minor thing that he probably would have worked out on his own as he grew up, but a few sessions of therapy would get him started on that path a bit sooner than in canon.

Subject A13: Haruno Sakura

Sakura's pink hair and Inner Sakura are explained by the same phenomenon: chimerism. Sakura is a chimera, which is a human with two different sets of DNA in their body. One way this can happen, and what happened to Sakura, is that she had a twin when in the womb, but the two embryos fused before differentiating too much. The dead twin's DNA makes up a large enough portion of her mind that it was able to develop a limited personality. It also resulted in her odd hair color—her hair is actually made up of a mixture of white and red strands that end up looking pink. Roans, a type of horse, have this exact hair color make-up.

As a side note, chimeras are actually quite common in the Naruto world because of all the manipulations that the shinobis do to their genetic codes.

Psychology: Sakura and Inner Sakura would have had the psychologists puzzling for quite a while. At first they would chalk it up to anger problems, but then they'd start thinking it was dissociative identity disorder (formerly known as multiple personality disorder), and finally they would do some readings of her brain tissue and discover her chimerism. From there, they would realize that she has an almost-other person within her mind. When they tell Sakura this, she would be rather freaked out at the idea that her not-twin is still with her in some way.

Sakura would also undergo the typical teenage girl therapy, the kind where they sit her down and slowly disillusion her beliefs in true love and shining princes in armor. She would be encouraged to continue her friendship with Ino, to try to be more independent from Sasuke and stop idolizing him, and to start looking at and recognizing the special qualities in other people besides Sasuke. She would also be encouraged to find a way to make herself stronger, since she has an insecurity about her strength. This would lead to Sakura asking Tsunade to tutor her in Medic-nin practices when they return to Konoha.


End file.
